Guyanese women suffer heartbreak to settle for Silver, Men cop bronze
THE Guyana national men’s and women’s teams played their hearts out yesterday when action in the 61st Senior Caribbean Table Tennis Championships continued at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) in front of a full house.

For their valiant efforts, the women’s team settled for Silver, losing out to the Dominican Republic (DR) in their final round-robin match while the men’s team, after losing a hard-fought battle in the semi-final to Puerto Rico, managed to defeat Barbados in their third-place match-up to claim Bronze.

First, Chelsea Edghill and Trenace Lowe faced the DR’s duo of Yasiris Ortiz and Esmerlyn Castro; that match proved to be a classic five-setter. In the opening set, Edghill and Lowe found themselves on the losing side of things, conceding it 6-11. However, they fought back to claim the second 11-9, but the DR duo claimed the next one 7-11 before the Guyanese dug deep to claim the last two sets at 13-11 and 12-10.

It was up to Natalie ‘Speedy’ Cummings who faced Eva Brito next, they produced another five-setter which went in favour of Brito, who won 7-11, 11-8, 4-11, 15-13 and 5-11 in a nail-biter.

With proceedings level at 1-1, the DR seized the advantage with Ortiz defeating Lowe in yet another five setter at 11-7, 12-10, 11-2 and 13-11. It was then heartbreak for the Guyanese women when Cummings conceded the game to Castro in sets of 7-11, 3-11 and 5- 11 for the DR to clinch Gold.

Earlier, the men’s team of Christopher Franklin, Joel Alleyne, Shemar Britton and Nigel Bryan showed tremendous heart and mental fortitude to take a 3-2 win over Barbados to claim Bronze in their category.

Alleyne and Franklin handed Guyana the advantage when they came from a set down to defeat Mark Dowell and Kevin Farley in sets of 7-11, 11-9, 11-7 and 11-3 in the doubles match.

Meanwhile, Britton could not hand Guyana a 2-0 lead, losing to Tyrese Knight in sets of 5-11, 4-11, 12-10, 8-11. However, Alleyne then bounced back to defeat Farley 11-6, 4-11, 11-6, 11-8 while Knight pulled Barbados level by defeating Franklin 11-8, 13-11,11-8.
Britton then closed in on the Bronze for Guyana by relegating Mark Dowell to a 11-7, 11-6, 6-11, and 11-8 defeat.