Guyana’s men and women’s table tennis teams went under to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico respectively when the table tennis aspect of the Central American and Caribbean Games got underway yesterday in El Salvador.
The men’s team was up first and despite the brilliance of southpaw Shemar Britton the team narrowly went under 2-3. The Guyana team drew first blood when the doubles pair of Britton and Jonathan Van Lange stunned the Dominican Republic pair of Isaac Vila and Abit Tejada 3-0 winning 11-7, 11-8, 12-10.
The Dominican Republic, however bounced back through Juaji Wu who, fresh off of his performances at the just concluded Pan American Qualifiers where he was among the first to qualify, defeated Christopher Franklin 11-5, 11-1, 11-3.
Britton, though, was not going down without a fight and showed that his recent Pan American Games qualification was no fluke by trouncing Vila 11-6, 8-11, 9-11, 11-7 and 13-11 to give the Guyanese the lead once more.
Wu, however proved too much to handle for 16-year-old Van Lange who bowed out 8-11, 1-11, 5-11.
In the decider Franklin lost to Tejada 7-11, 5-11, 8-11.
In the women’s encounter Puerto Rico led by their world rated player Adriana Diaz easily dispatched the Guyanese women 3-0.
Melanie Diaz and Alondra Rodriguez defeated Priscilla Greaves and Natalie Cummings 12-10, 11-5, 9-11, 11-7 and Diaz put the Puerto Ricans up 2-0 with an 11-2, 11-4 and 11-5 defeat of Chelsea Edghill.
Rodriguez then closed out the tie with a straight sets, 11-7, 11-9 and 11-7 defeat of Cummings.
