SENIOR national player Joel Alleyne and young star Jasmine Billingy were crowned senior winners when the curtain came down on the National Sports Commission, 2023 Independence Table Tennis Tournament on Sunday evening.
In a thrilling encounter at the National Gymnasium, Alleyne battled back from a game down to defeat the resurging Nigel Bryan 3-2.
Bryan won the first game 11-9, before Alleyne evened the clash with a hard-fought 12-10 win. The eventual winner pulled ahead 11-7 in the third clash before Bryan stormed back with an 11-8 win to draw the clash even at 2-2. In the final game, it could have gone either way, but Alleyne pulled off a victory.
In the semi-final, Bryan had defeated youngster Ebo McNeil 3-1 (11-6, 11-13, 11-6 and 11-7), while Alleyne had defeated Elishaba Johnson 3-1 (11-5, 10-12, 12-10 and 11-5).
In the Women’s Singles, Billingy stormed to a 4-0 win for an automatic first-place finish against some of the top young players in the country.

Second place went to Samara Sukhai with three wins from four clashes and third to Akira Watson.
Billingy, 12, also won the U13 and U15 girls’ titles.
She would have clean sweep the female category, but Sukhai, who also continues to improve, stopped her in the U19 final 3-1. She lost the opener 7-11 before she stepped up her game to defeat her rival 11-8, 11-9, 14-12.
Joint third place went to Watson and Seona Barker.

In the Boys U19 division, Jonathan Van Lange played unbeaten to the title. He defeated Malachi Moore 11-6, 11-2, 12-10 in the semi-final before whipping Umar Percival 11-8, 11-3, 11-8.
The ‘B’ Division was won by Niran Bisshu.
Overall in the championship, Zion Hickerson won the U9 Boys; Darius Daniels the U11 Boys, Jaden Trotman the Novice; Kayden Meusa the U13 Boys and Moore, the U15 title.