-U13 teams win doubles, Sukhai win Girls U11 Singles

GUYANA finished with the most points at the Caribbean Regional Table Tennis Federation (CRTTF) Mini and Pre-Cadet Championship, which was held over the last six days in Georgetown.
The home team, which competed with the most participants finished with 1640 points, while Jamaica finished second on 1080, Trinidad and Tobago third on 790 and St Lucia fourth on 760 with Barbados and Grenada bringing up the rear.

On the final day of the event yesterday, the home team dominated the U13 doubles, while St Lucia won three of the four singles finals. Guyana’s only gold in the singles came via Samara Sukhai, who won the Girls U11 title.

DOUBLES GLORY
In the Boys U13 Doubles final, the duo of Malachi Moore and Ebo McNeil stormed to a 3-0 win against Jamaicans Logan Royes and Gmarco Smith. That game ended 11-9, 11-5 and 11-0.
The Jamaicans had gotten the better of Trinidadians Sekel McIntosh and Ethan Ramcharan 3-0 (11-9, 11-8 and 11-6) in semi-final one, while in the other semis, Moore and McNeil got past the tough St Lucian pair of Leshon Francis and Manie Eleuthere by a come-from-behind 3-2 margin (7-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-7 and 11-5).

Jasmine Billingy and Samara Sukhai were also successful when they competed in the Girls U13 Doubles.
The pair that had won the U13 team event for Guyana was able to get past the Jamaican duo of Kayan Denton and Keeara Whyte 3-1 (7-11, 11-3, 13-11 and 11-5), in the championship clash.

Although they had also gotten the better of Trinidadians Lyllana Boodhan and Jerisse Elder 3-1 (10-12, 11-5, 11-7 and 11-7) in the semis, the Guyanese toughest challenge was against the St Lucian and Trinidad combined pair of Shantal Charles and Jannah Mohammed in the quarter-final. That game ended 3-2 in favour of the eventual winners (11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 8-11 and 11-9).
In the other semi-final, Denton and Whyte had defeated the Guyanese duo of Shackecy Damon and Nakeiva Fordyce 3-1 (11-13, 11-2, 11-7 and 11-2).

ALL-GUYANA BATTLE
It was an all-Guyana battle in the Girls U11 Singles and Sukhai made no mistake en route to her third gold (doubles, team and singles) in the championship.
She drew a bye in the first round and defeated Fordyce in the semis 3-0 (11-1, 11-2, 11-1) before she got the better of Damon in the final 3-0 (11-5, 11-2 and 11-5).
Damon had edged out Seona Barker in the semis by a score of 3-2 (10-12, 11-9, 11-9, 9-11 and 11-9).

ST LUCIA’S DOMINANCE
In the other singles events, it was all St Lucia. In the final of the U11 Boys, Francis defeated Jamaican Ajani Spencer 3-0 (11-3, 11-2 and 11-5) and Trinidadian Aaron Noel 3-0 (11-3, 11-6 and 11-4) in the semi-finals.
Spencer on the other hand got the better of Trinidadian Lima Walters in the other semi-final (3-2: 11-7, 11-7, 6-11, 9-11 and 11-7).

Both Spencer and Walters had defeated Guyanese Aaron Hopkinson and A. Johnson in the quarter-finals.
Guyana came close to winning the Boys U13 Singles, via Moore, but he could not get past Eleuthere as the championship clash ended 3-2 (13-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-13 and 11-5) in favour of the St Lucian.

In the semi-final, Moore had defeated Trinidadian McIntosh 3-0 (11-8, 11-4, 11-6), while Eleuthere had gotten the better of Ebo 3-0 (11-6, 11-6 and 11-9).
Guyana got another silver medal in the singles, this time via Billingy in the U13 division.

St Lucia’s Shantal Charles was crowned champion after winning 3-1 (11-5, 6-11, 11-6 and 11-6).
Charles had defeated Jamaican player Whyte 3-1 in the final four, while Billingy had defeated Trinidadian Lylana Boodhan 3-0 (11-8, 11-7, 11-3) in the other semis.
Boodhan got the better of the other Guyanese competitor, Akira Watson 3-1 (10-12, 11-4, 12-10 and 11-8) in the quarter-final.