GUYANA’s men and women teams were stopped by Cuba at the semifinal stage of the ongoing Caribbean Senior Table Tennis Championship in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

The men’s team made up of Shemar Britton, Elishaba Johnson, Joel Alleyne and Niran Bissu bowed out at the semi-finals after a straight set loss to Cuba on Thursday in the Caribbean Island.

In the individual matches that counted towards the team win, Britton first went up against Cuba’s Adrian Perez.

The Cuban showed his intention with a fabulous opening set winning 11-2 but Olympic prospect Britton was not out of it yet, showing his resolve to take the next set 11-7.

The third set proved pivotal as the lead changed several times before Perez finished it 12-10 after a few tie breaks.

The Cuban would show poise against the top Guyanese to close it out in the fourth 11-4 to take a 3 sets to 1 win.

Johnson also picked up a set in his 3-1 loss to Livan Martinez of Cuba.

Johnson started hot to win the opening set 11-8 but Martinez showed his class to take the next three sets 11-7, 11-8 and 11-2.

Alleyne then lost the third match of the best of five games to see Guyana surrendering the semi-finals final encounter and ending their team campaign.

On the women side, the ladies team led by Olympian Chelsea Edghill and including Jasmine Billingy, Thuraia Thomas and Natalie Cummings on Wednesday also went down to Cuba.

Cummings played well despite a tough 3-0 defeat at the hands of Estela Crespo of Cuba.

She put up a fight in the first set before losing 12-10.

She was overwhelmed in the second set losing 11-5 but again showed tremendous grit in the third set before being beaten again 12-10.

Thomas loss in straight sets 11-3, 11-4 & 11-6.

The toughest match came when Olympian Edghill fought against Rosalba Aguiar; it ended 3-2 in favour of the Cuban.

Aguiar showed awesome ability to win the first two sets 14-12 and 11-4 and seem to have it in the bag after an average performance from Guyana’s top female in the second set.

However, like the Phoenix, and in Chelsea Edghill style, she rose back to life in the third and fourth sets to bring the crowd alive and tie up the match 2-2, winning 11-8 and 11-9.

In the final sets Aguiar would prove better down the stretch to take an 11-8 win and the match three sets to two.

The Guyanese will now battle in the men and women doubles, mixed doubles and singles categories in the coming days.

The champions conclude on April 21.