GUYANA’S recently crowned Caribbean U-21 Men’s table tennis champion, Shemar Britton, continues his upward progression by winning the Trinidad and Tobago Open Super-Singles Men’s Open Singles title  when  that  championship concluded on Wednesday (December 5) at the National Racquet Centre, Orange Grove Main Road, Tacarigua, Trinidad and Tobago.

Britton, a scholastically inclined and immensely talented as well as disciplined table tennis player, who is currently pursuing a Law degree at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, T&T, represented and played under the Queen’s Park Table Tennis Club banner.

He defeated all-comers in the men’s singles round-robin final involving Trinidad and Tobago’s national champion Curtis Humphreys of the WASA Table Tennis Club, Arun Roopnarine of the Arima Hawks, American-based Dayanand Maharaj who plays for the Solo Crusaders Club, former Caribbean junior champion Luc O’ Young and Aaron Edwards, another Queen’s Park Table Tennis Club player to win the prestigious title which pits the crème de la crème of Trinidad and Tobago’s table tennis players.

Britton’s task was even more arduous in winning the championship, given that he is a player without a Trinidad and Tobago ranking. It meant that he had to play in the qualification event to get a ranking, before playing in group stages in order to advance to the knockout stage.

In a very compact format of competition which had over 100 players, Britton and the other gladiators advanced into round-robin ‘Big Six’ finals from the knockout phase held last Sunday (December 2). National men’s champion Curtis Humphreys of the WASA Table Tennis Club beat N’kosi Rouse in three straight sets (11-7, 11-2, 11-8) to move forward to the final. Arun Roopnarine of the Arima Hawks did the same to Joshua Manswell (11-8, 11-8, 11-3). Despite a little trouble in the third set, Britton took out former national champion Reeza Burke (11-5, 11-6, 13-15, 11-9) to move forward.

American-based former national champion and national men’s team representative Dayanand Maharaj, who plays for the Solo Crusaders Club, fought hard to recover from two sets down, to beat child prodigy Derron Douglas in a gruelling five-set clash (13-15, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-9).

Luc O’ Young moved past Everton Sorzano (14-12, 12-10, 11-9) to go to the final, and Aaron Edwards, another Queen’s Park Table Tennis team member, beat Andrew Alexander (12-10, 11-7, 11-6).

In the round-robin finals Britton defeated Arun Roopnarine by a 3-0 margin, Arron Edwards 3-1, Luc O Young 3-1; Dayanand Maharaj by 3-0 and Curtis Humphreys 3-2 to secure the title.

Britton, who will be doing battle for Guyana in the 2019 Senior Caribbean Table Tennis championships, scheduled for March 9-17 at Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH), Guyana, will be sacrificing his holiday season to commence intensifying his preparation for this critical championship with a training camp in China.

The 2019 Caribbean Championships will be the qualification event for the Caribbean to select one male and one female to represent the Caribbean Region at the 2019 Pan American games in August 2019 in Lima, Peru.