… France cops bronze in Over-45 Masters

DEFENDING champion of the U-21 competition, Shemar Britton settled for silver last night when the curtain came down on day four of the 61st edition of the Senior Caribbean Table Tennis Championship, at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in Georgetown.

Guyana’s other medal yesterday was a bronze by 62-year-old Colin France who bowed out of the semi-finals of the Over-45 Masters after a 3-0 defeat by president of the Caribbean Region Table Tennis Federation, Teddy Matthews, who represented St. Lucia.
The 63-year-old Matthews lost to Barbadian player Trevor Farley by straight sets in the final of the competition later in the evening.

Although the Barbadian copped gold, the day belonged to the young Cuban pair of Livan Martinez and Carrazana Fonseca who won the U21 male and female titles.

MALE FINAL
Britton proved competitive in the male U21 final against Martinez, but the latter was the better player and was able to counter his attacking plays.

For most of the match, Britton was in catch up mode as the Cuban played aggressively off his serves. Although the Guyanese had several moments of control, he was never able to dominate a full game, leading to the 4-0 result (11-9, 11-7, 11-9 and 11-9).

Prior to that clash, the Britton registered a come-from-behind win against Barbadian Tyrese Knight 3-1 (8-11, 11-8, 11-5, and 11-5). That game was a replay of last year’s final, with the same end result, while in the quarter-final, the fourth-seated Britton defeated Puerto Rican Gabriel Jose Perez 3-0 (11-3, 11-8 and 11-5).

FEMALE BATTLE
A new female champion was also crowned, given that defending champion, Guyanese Chelsea Edghill, was ineligible this year, due to her age. Guyana’s lone female representative yesterday was Priscilla Greaves, who lost to eventual second place finisher Esmerlyn Castro 0-3 (10-12, 6-11 and 7-11) in the quarter final.

Although Castro was clinical, she was defeated by the spirited Fonseca 4-2 (8-11, 11-2, 12-10, 11-8, 7-11 and 13-11) in the female final.
The championship, which is set to conclude tomorrow, continues today with the men and women singles.