Blasters, Gladiators vie for WASA table-tennis crown

At 7pm, there will be the third place playoff, with $3,000 at stake, between Baggoo Himalaya Tough Guys and WASA.

Blasters are still unbeaten after five matches and seem to be comfortable whereas Gladiators appeared to have peaked at the right time as they won their last three matches so it promises to be an entertaining encounter.

Blasters and Gladiators registered comfortable victories in their semi-final matches as they both won 4-2 against Baggoo Himalaya and WASA respectively on Tuesday.

Alaric Humphreys was outclassed by David Mahabir 3-1 (11-8, 11-5, 8-11, 11-3). Aaron Wilson pulled it back with a hard-fought victory over top Barbadian player Mark Dowell 3-2 (11-7, 8-11, 11-7, 7-11, 11-5).

Reeza Burke easily defeated clubmate Lionel Dareceuil 3-0 (11-3, 11-5, 12-10). The lone victory for the Baggoo team on the second table came from Anil Ramlakhan when he defeated Zeke Huggins 3-1 (11-13, 11-7, 11-7, 11-7). Luc O`Young and Joshua Maxwell defeated Wesley Dookhoo and Vinoo Maraj 3-0 and 3-2 respectively.

Guyanese Joel Alleyne gave Gladiators the early lead after beating Franklyn Seechan 3-1 (12-10, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7) then his fellow countryman Shemar Britton made light of work of Curtis Humphreys as he won 3-0 (11- 5, 11-7, 11-7). Aaron Edwards sealed the victory with a comeback victory against Kenneth Parmanand 3-1 (9-11, 12-10, 11- 6, 11-8).

This was the first time in the tournament that a team won all three matches on either the first or second table. Once again on the second table Gladiators selected an all-female team of Linda Boodhan, Aleena and Astra Edwards but only Aleena was victorious this time as she won against Ancil Russell 3-1 (8-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-9).

Burke, the five-time national champion, spoke confidently after Blasters semi-final victory.

“We are ready and up for the challenge! Our chances are good especially given the way Aaron is playing and the strength and balance of our second table players, Alaric has been in good form recently and I love to compete and hopefully I can chip in with a valuable win as well.” The hard-hitting right hander was also weary of his opponents.

He said, “Gladiators have also shown a desire to win, with strong performances from both first and second tables but the draw can have the biggest impact in terms who will win on the night.” Multiple national champion Aleena Edwards shared the same confidence as Burke by saying, “our chances are high and the aim is to win the top prize.

We came very close to winning against them in the round robin phase and once we work out our strategy well we should be successful.”