-Lowe and Britton win bronze medals on final day

A good all-round performance by home team, Guyana, propelled them to an overall second place finish at the 61st edition of the Senior Caribbean Table Tennis Championships, which concluded last evening at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

Although Guyana ended without a gold medal, the side still tallied 750 points. Only the Dominican Republic, who dominated the doubles and the team events, finished with more points. Their 1530 points highlighted their supremacy at the meet.

Barbados finished third with 640 points, due mostly to their performance in the Masters: victory for Trevor Farley (males) and silver for Angela Reid (females).
Cuba and Puerto Rico were superior in their game-play, but the former came with a small team (no female team), while Puerto Rico only travelled with a men’s team.

Despite the limitation, Cuba still managed a fourth-place finish after tallying 600 points. Daniela Carrazana Fonseca, the lone Cuban female participant, was one of the standout performers at the tournament. The 19-year-old finished with the Women’s Singles title yesterday to go with the U-19 title which she had won earlier in the week.

Puerto Rico finished fifth in the points table after second-place finishes in the Men’s team and the men’s singles competitions.

Jamaica, who copped a gold medal via Sandra Riettie in the women’s over-45 singles, finished sixth with 250 points.

Trinidad and Tobago ended on 70 points for a seventh-place position, while St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Guadeloupe and Martinique brought up the rear.

FINAL DAY MEDAL
Yesterday, Guyana bowed out in the semi-finals (automatic bronze) of the senior singles in both the male and female divisions.

Shemar Britton, who finished with a silver medal in the U-21 competition, defeated Martinique player Fabrice Elie-Dit-Cosaque 3-0 (11-4, 11-8 and 11-7) in the first round before he got the better of Dominican Samuel Galvez 3-0 (11-8, 11-8 and 11-9).

In a replay of the semi-finals of the U-21 and last year’s U-21 championship clash, Britton again defeated Barbadian player Tyrese Knight. His latest victory ended 4-1 (11-5, 11-6, 4-11, 11-9 and 11-5).

In the semi-final, Britton fell to Puerto Rican player Hector Berrios 1-4 (8-11, 11-6, 7-11, 9-11 and 10-12).

Guyana had seven players in the two-day senior competition and five made it to the round of 16, but only Britton advanced.
Nigel Bryan, who defeated Samuel Delepine from Martinique 3-1 (7-11, 11-7, 11-8 and 11-8), fell 1-3 to Ricardo Jimenez from Puerto Rico in the next round.

Team captain Christopher Franklin got past Barbadian Marcus Smith 3-1 (11-5, 7-11, 11-5 and 11-4), but lost to U-21 champion Livan Martinez in the round of 16, while Elishaba Johnson got the better of Jamaican Mark Phillips in the opening round 3-2 (12-10, 12-10, 5-11, 8-11 and 11-4) before falling to Dominican Isaac Vila in the round of 16.

Guyana’s other representative in the men’s single was Colin France. The 62-year-old, who finished with a bronze medal in the Over-45 competition, got past Trinidadian Derron Douglas in the opening round 3-1 (6-11, 11-8, 12-10 and 11-6), before he fell to Berrios.

Trenace Lowe ended with a bronze for the local side. The female captain defeated Barbadian Janae Lewis 3-1 in the opening round (11-5, 6-11, 11-8 and 11-6), before she got past another Barbadian, Kenady King, in the quarter-final via a score of 4-0 (11-6, 11-8, 11-2 and 11-6). She, however, fell to eventual silver medallist, Esmerlyn Castro 0-4 (9-11, 6-11, 6-11 and 7-11) in the next round.

Guyana had players in three of the four quarter-final clashes. Natalie Cummings got past Jamaican Dadrian Lewus 3-0 (11-4, 11-9 and 11-7) in the round of 16, before losing to Dominican Eva Brito 1-4 (6-11, 8-11, 11-6 11-13, 11-13), while Jody-Ann Blake who defeated Barbadian Krystle Harvey 3-1 (9-11, 11-5, 11-9 and 16-14) in the round of 16, suffered a heartbreaking loss to Castro in the final eight. The match finished 4-0 to Castro, but the first three games were very close at 12-10, 14-12, 14-12 before an 11-4 loss.