Sukhai and Billingy earn bronze in girls’ doubles

Jasmine Billingy and Samara Sukhai showed grit and determination to earn Guyana’s first medal at the Caribbean Regional Youth Table Tennis Championship on Friday in Bridgetown, Barbados.

The duo, playing the semifinal won their opening set 11-7 against Puerto Rican Ariana Aponte and Aurora Bonome.
Despite a strong second set rally which they lost 13-11, they fell away in the later stages of the match, losing the third and fourth sets 11-6 and 11-9 to settle for a bronze.
The girls earlier won their quarter final match by beating Jamaican pair Christina Royes and Mystique Sharpe 3-1.

They lost the first two sets but bounce back to win the last three sets straight 18-16, 11-5 and 11-7 to reach the quarter finals.
In boys’ doubles action, the pair of Colin Wong and Malachi Moore lost to Barbados duo Alex Henry and Rachad Gill 3 sets to 2 in the round of 32.
In the round of 16, Jonathan Van Lange and Krystian Sahadeo beat Trinidad’s Ameer Mohamed and Sekel McIntosh 3-2.

In the quarter final they faced Puerto Rico’s Chrisnomar Aviles and Jose Nieves.
The Guyanese lost the first set 11-9 but won the second and third 11-7 and 11-1. They were however outmatched in the next two sets 11-9 and 11-7 to be knocked out.
The girls’ pair of Akira Watson and Angel Robinson also were defeated in straight set 3-0 by Dominican Republic’s Figueroa De La Cruz and Yesmelly Guerrero in their round of 16 match-up.

Meanwhile on Thursday in the singles category stage Akira Watson beat Trinidad Jonnah Mohammed in straight sets 3-0 in the girls group.
Also in the winner circle was Samara Sukhai who got the better of her Jamaican counterpart Kira Scott 3-2 in the round of 32 before beating Watson 3-0 to reach the quarter-finals.
However, Billingy failed to advance to the quarter finals after going down to Keeara Whyte and Angel Robinson lost in a tough match 3-2 to Jamaica’s Kayan Denton.

In the boys singles group Colin Wong lost to Ameer Mohamed 3-2, while Kystian Sahadeo beat Barrinton Loague 3-0.
Van Lange also beat Grenada’s DeWayne Dinnoh-Newlands 3-0, Malachi more also picked up a win over T&T’s Sekel 3-0.
Van Lange won his round of 32 match against St Lucia’s Joshua Lubin 4-1.

Sahadeo lost in the singles round of 32 to Eduardo Darley 4-0 and Malachi lost to Jamaican Azizi Johnson
In the mix doubles Wong and Sukhai lost to a pair from Dominican Republic 3-1, while Van Lange and Billingy beat St Vincent’s Terence Ashton and Jessica McCarter.
Also, in the round of 32 doubles action, Moore and Watson lost to a Cuba team 3-0, Sahadeo and Robinson also suffered the same fate against Alejandro Martinez and Adriana Bode from Cuba.
Van Lange and Billingy’s campaign ended in the doubles round of 16 as they went down to a Puerto Rican duo 3-0.

Today (Saturday), Van Lange will play the boys round of 16 match against Trinidad’s Malik Gopaul and Sukhai will play her girls quarter finals match against Martinez Hernandez.