GUYANA finished with three bronze medals in the team competition of this year’s Caribbean Regional Table Tennis Federation Mini & Pre-Cadet Championships, after finishing with bronze in the Boys 11 years-and-under, and Boys 13 years-and-under categories, at the event being held in Kingston, Jamaica.
The Under-11 Boys’ team, comprising Krystian Sahadeo, Dhanesh Persaud, Colin Wong and Alexander De Abreu, secured 3-0 wins against Trinidad and the Jamaica ‘B’ teams. However, losses against the Jamaica- A team and the Dominican Republic Boys left the Guyanese in third.
The promising Sahadeo opened the boys’ bid in the match against Trinidad, winning 3-0 (11-9, 11-6, 11-3) against Sameer Ali.
Persaud followed, dropping just one set against Sachin Ramsumair. After conceding the first set 11-13 to Ramsumair, Persaud rebounded with two successive 11-7 sets, then closing off the final game without dropping any points.
Next up to the table, De Abreu faced Gabriel John to also take a 3-1 (11-2, 11-8, 10-12, 11-2) win, and close off an opening victory for Guyana.
Against the Jamaica-B team, once again a another straight game match against Brian Blake with a 11-4, 11-5, 11-3 margin.
Persaud took down Aji Francis in similar fashion ending 11-1, 11-3, 11-9. Replacing De Abreu in this match was Wong, who also had straight games after beating Elijah Moore 11-3, 11-8, 11-9.
The Guyana team’s winning streak was broken when Persaud went under against Jamaica’s Azizi Johnson. Sahadeo avenged his team mate with a win against Matthew Fung 11-5, 11-4, 11-6.
However, the team sustained another loss when Wong fought valiantly but failed, 3-2 (11-5, 4-11, 11-8, 9-11, 7-11). Sahadeo folded 3-0 against Azizi to end it for Guyana.
Against Dominican Republic Sahadeo lost 1-3 (3-11, 5-11, 11-9, 3-11) against Eduardo Darley; Persaud was defeated by Ramon Vila (6-11, 5-11, 8-11). Wong was able to serve up a tough 3-2 win against Yoel Mendonza. But it would be over for the boys after Sahadeo lost 3-0 to Vila.
In the Boys 13-and-under category, Guyana were placed in Group two along with Jamaica A, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and St Lucia, scoring 3- 0 wins against all three countries to make it into the semi-final round.
The team comprised Kaysan Ninvalle, Isaiah Layne, Jonathan van Lange. In the semi-final the Boys lost 3-0 against the Dominican Republic, who won the competition overall. Guyana shared third place with the Jamaica-A team.
Guyana also teamed up with St Vincent to form a Mixed team that participated in the Girls 13-and-under team competition, finishing fourth after prevailing over the Jamaica B team.
