… Persaud wins ‘C’ division

ELISHABA Johnson stormed to wins in ‘B’ division and U-21 categories on the penultimate day of the Forbes Burnham Memorial Table Tennis Championships, on Monday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

Again he battled 13-year-old junior national champion (U-15 and U-18) Jonathan Van Lange in both finals.

Several weeks ago, at the National Championships, the two players had shared victories in the events. Johnson had won the U-21 battle, while Van Lange had won the ‘B’ division.

In the latest U-21 final, Johnson surged to a 4-1 win in their best-of-seven series.  Johnson won 11-5, 11-4, 11-9, 7-11, 12-10 in his last year in the competition.

Johnson had defeated Isaiah Layne 4-2 in the semi-finals (7-11, 12-10, 14-16, 11-3, 11-4, 12-10), while Van Lange had gotten the better of Colin Wong 4-2 (11-6, 11-9, 5-11, 11-6, 8-11 11-8).

Both Wong and Layne had finished joint third.

The ‘B’ division final was a closer match and Johnson had to battle back from a score of 1-3 to defeat his young rival.

Van Lange won the opening games 12-10, 11-4, before Johnson, the son of veteran coach Linden Johnson, won the third game 11-7. Van Lange looked like he would have surged to another ‘B’ division win when he took game four at 11-9, but three testing battles saw Johnson emerging victorious at 12-10, 12-10, 11-9.

In the semi-finals, Van Lange had defeated Layne 4-2, while Johnson had gotten the better of Jamal Nicholas by a similar score.

The two players could have met again last evening in the semi-finals of the Open Singles.  Van Lange had already qualified for the final four, while Johnson had to face Layne in a quarter-final battle.

In an upset, Orin Hickerson defeated tournament favourite and former Senior National Champion Nigel Bryan by a score of 4-1 (11-7, 11-9, 5-11, 11-5, 11-9) in their semi-final clash.

Meanwhile, Queen’s College third-former Narren Persaud got past fellow 14-year-old Umar Percival (Isa Islamic School) in the ‘C’ division final.  

The match was a tense affair with Persaud battling back from two games down to win 3-2 (11-7, 5-11, 8-11, 12-10, 11-7).

Earlier Percival had defeated Abdool Aleem Rahim (3-1) in the semis.  Rahim had gotten the better of nine-year-old Jasmine Billingy in the quarterfinal.

Persaud, on the other hand, had gotten past Mark Evans (3-1) in the other semi-final clash.

Both Evans and Rahim had claimed a third-place finish.