Guyana’s Trenace Lowe recorded Guyana’s only winning match as Guyana finished third, on Thursday last, in group 4 during the qualifying round of the women’s team table tennis competition at the inaugural Pan American Sports Festival which concluded in Mexico, yesterday.

Represented by Lowe, Chelsea Edghill and Natalia Cummings, Guyana was placed alongside Colombia and Mexico, both of which teams went on to share the third place position.

Against Colombia and Mexico the Guyana girls lost 0 – 3 and 1 -3, respectively, after hard fought fights from all three players.

Guyana opened play against Colombia with Edghill taking on Cory Tellez; driving the match to an intense five set battle ending in favour of the Colombian.

The competition saw Tellez taking the first set 11-6, before Edghill evened when she took the next set 11- 8. It was back to Tellez in the third set as she took another 11 – 6 triumph.

With both girls, no doubt trying to up the ante, the fourth set was hard fought, but Edghill exercising the skills from her recent training stint in China downed Tellez 14 – 12. However, the ultimate victory would be for Tellez when she captured the crucial fifth set 11 – 2.

Tellez’s win was followed by another from Angie Umbacia when she took on Lowe and took her out 3 – 0 (11 – 5, 11 – 3, 14 – 12). Next up was the doubles competition where Umbacia paired with Paloma Sarmiento to take on Edghill and Cuimmings for another 3 – 0 win.

Against Mexico, which later came up against the competition powerhouse Brazil in the semi-finals, Guyana opened with a win after Lowe turned back the challenge of Monica Serrano. Lowe, who was also part of the China training camp, managed to hold back the Mexican in five sets ending 5-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-7, 11-6.

Yadira Silva redeemed her teams’ lost when she came up against, and defeated, Cummings 11-4, 11- 3, 11- 7. Silva and Mercedes Madrid put together a 3-0 win against Lowe and Edghill to give Mexico the advantage.

A five set win for Madrid over Cummings (8-11, 11-7, 5-11, 11-8, and 11-8) solidified the victory for Mexico. The overall women’s team competition at the Festival was won by Brazil whose team was made up entirely of teenagers.

The team’s event of the competition was followed by the doubles and individual rounds of competition.

The Pan American Sports Festival is a multisport initiative of the Pan American Sports Organisation (PASO), organisers of the quadrennial Pan American Games. The event was aimed as a preparatory prelude to the Pan American Games, which next hosting is scheduled to take place next year in Ontario, Canada.

The ladies participation at the Sports Festival was also part of their preparation leading up to their participation at the Commonwealth Games which is set to begin this coming Wednesday in Glasgow, Scotland.

They are expected to travel to Glasgow from Mexico, to meet up with the rest of the Guyanese contingent that will be participating at the Commonwealth Games which starts on Wednesday.