SECURING U-21 gold at the 60th edition of the Caribbean Table Tennis Championships in Jamaica was the ultimate goal for Shemar Britton and Chelsea Edghill which they both realised on Wednesday. However, the road to success was a tough one, Britton said.

At the quarter-final stage, he beat Puerto Rico’s Derek Torres in a full distance contest (9-11, 11-4, 11-4, 7-11, 11-7), prior to overcoming Dominican Republic’s Abit Tejada in the semi-final.

According to Britton, he was down 5-0 in the fifth and decisive set against Torres and it took incredible self-belief to come back and win.

While he also came out top in another five-setter (8-11, 11-8, 11-3, 11-9) against Tejada to reserve his place in the final, it took another five games for Britton to win that match as he got past Tyrese Knight of Barbados (8-11, 11-9, 13-11, 9-11, 11-8).

Speaking exclusively to Chronicle Sport, Britton noted; “It was a tough journey; the feeling right now is just pure joy, relief and gratefulness. It had been a lot of hard training days and heartbreaks on the way to this result.”

After Britton’s success, less than an hour later Edghill managed a similar feat. In the group phase of proceedings, she was pushed to the limit in five full games by Trinidad and Tobago’s Brittany Joseph (11-9, 8-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-5). However, the two emerged from the group stage as first and second players.

The two met again in the final. In the title-deciding contest it was a different story as Edghill dispatched Joseph in three straight games (11-9, 11-6, 12-10) to clinch gold.

Earlier, Edghill had ended the hopes of Dominican Republic player. At the quarter-final stage she had beaten Dahyana Rojas by the very narrowest of margins (11-7, 11-6, 9-11, 1-11, 11-9), before comfortably defeating Yasiris Ortiz (11-7, 13-11, 12-10) in the semis to reserve her place in the final.

Play concludes in Kingston tomorrow with the Men’s Singles and Women’s Singles events continuing today.