– Cummings, Van Lange, Johnson and Chung also victorious on final day

CHRISTOPHER Franklin is still the king of table tennis in Guyana.  He marched through a long line of quality players on Sunday, including main rival, Shemar Britton, to win his third consecutive senior national title at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

Although Britton had moments of glory in the championship clash, the class of the defending champion diminished the battle. The 35-year-old was clinical in his execution; he served low, but with speed and stayed calm throughout the entire clash, which helped to stop, at least for this year, his 21-year-old rival’s dream of winning his first senior title.

The 14-year gap was never evident as Franklin played some exquisite strokes and was able to weather the storm every time the former Caribbean U-21 champion attempted to stage a comeback.

After the opening loss, Britton found himself trailing 8-2, but he rebounded with positive strokeplays by scoring four unanswered points.  Franklin, however, kept his cool and re-adjusted to register win number two.

Game three was another scorcher and the pair traded points with Britton keeping the upper hand until Franklin took the lead 9-8, but the backspin of Britton won him key points down the stretch.

As he did in his previous games, Franklin again made the adjustments, which propelled him to championship honours.

The match finished 4-1 (11-6, 11-6, 10-12, 11-7 and 11-7).

Prior to that game, Franklin had defeated Joel Alleyne 4-1 (11-7, 11-5, 11-4, 9-11 and 11-4), while Britton had gotten past former champion, Nigel Bryan 4-0 (11-5, 11-7, 11-4 and 11-6) in the semis.

Alleyne and Bryan finished in joint third place.

VAN LANGE’S VICTORY

The senior championship final might have been the most impactful, but Jonathan Van Lange stole the show.

The 13-year-old junior national champion (U-15 and U-18) stormed to victory in the ‘B’ division even though he was nursing a fractured finger.

After finishing as runner up to Elishaba Johnson in the U-21 final, the national U-15 cricketer bounced back later in the evening in a re-match, to take the ‘B’ division title.  Johnson, the son of renowned coach, Linden Johnson, played exceptional tennis, but he was no match for his younger opponent.

That contest was very competitive with Van Lange winning the openers (11-5, 11-9), before Johnson came back to tie 12-10, 13-11.  The older player had to dig deep to undermine the strokeplay of Van Lange.  Though the eventual champion would win the last two games 11-5 and 11-8, the points did not come easy.

In the semi-final of the ‘B’ division, Johnson had defeated Isaiah Layne 4-2, while Van Lange, who lost to Franklin in the quarterfinals of the seniors (4-1), had defeated Brandon Belle 4-1.

Both Layne and Belle settled for a bronze medal.

Earlier, it was Johnson who soared to victory.  In the U-21 battle, Johnson was ahead 3-0 (11-7, 11-5 and 11-5) before Van Lange fought back (11-8 and 11-8).  The older player was, however, able to close the match with a 13-11 win.

DOMINANT CUMMINGS

Without the likes of senior national players, Trenace Lowe, Chelsea Edghill and Jody-Ann Blake, the female championship was less competitive. Instead, several juniors battled Natalie Cummings and she proved why she is highly rated.

Cummings did not drop a game as she defeated national U-15 champion, Thuraia Thomas 11-4, 11-5 and 11-7; U-18 champion Crystal Melville 11-5, 11-3 and 11-2, and U-21 champion, Jasmine Billingy 11-4, 11-6 and 11-6.

Thomas placed second overall, while Melville finished third.

Meanwhile, in the ‘C’ division final, Kyle Chung defeated Troy McRae 3-2 (11-9, 8-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9) in an entertaining and close clash.