TT women break 25-year t-tennis jinx

Trinidad and Tobago women broke a 25-year title drought on home soil when they beat Venezuela 3-1 to capture the team title at  the 2004 Caribbean Senior Table Tennis Championships at the University of the West Indies Sport and Physical Education Centre, St Augustine. Earlier on Wednesday, TT beat Puerto Rico 3-2 to secure a spot in the final against the Venezuelans who romped into the final 3-0 winners over Aruba. The local women although confident, started tentatively, but skipper Rheann Chung’s 15-13, 11-5, 11-9 defeat of Cruz Aguilar helped to settle nerves. Shelly Ann Wilson faced Mariana Guanchez and started brightly winning the first set 11-6, but Guanchez recovered to win 6-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-8 for  Venezuela to level the match 1-1.

This turned out to be the Venezuelan’s only victory, however, as Aleena Edwards outplayed Angelica Pineda in an entertaining match 11-9, 14-12, 4-11, 11-7 and the France-based Chung smashed her way past Guanchez 11-6, 13-11, 11-3 to give her country the title to the delight of the crowd. Coming off a 3-2 loss to Puerto Rico the Trinidad and Tobago men went down to Venezuela by a similar margin to finish out of the medals. Skipper Dexter St Louis gave Trinidad and Tobago the lead beating Antonio Herrera 13-11, 11-6, 11-9, but the Venezuelans tied up the match 1-1 when Henry Mujica beat US-based Khaleel Asgarali 6-11, 5-11, 3-11.  The visitors  went one up with Antonio Gianni beating Reeza Burke 11-7, 10-12, 11-5, 6-11, 12-14.

But after St. Louis beat Henry Mujica 8-11, 11-3, 11-7, 11-7 to pull level, only for Antonio Herrera to whip Asgarali 5-11, 10-12, 4-11 to seal victory for Venezuela. Puerto Rico beat Barbados 3-0 to win the gold medals. Barbados earned their spot in the final with a 3-1 win over Venezuela. Earlier yesterday, Trinidad and Tobago’s Chung and Edwards beat the Guatemalan team of Ruth Alvarez, Edeluais Chajchalac 3-2 to advance to the semi-finals of the women doubles against Venezuela’s Cruz Aguilar and Michelle Neal later. Trinidad and Tobago’s St Louis and Anthony “Sandfly” Brown advanced to the men doubles semi-finals.  They play Venezuelans Elis Ronclon and Antonio Gianni.

St Louis and Chung were to play Hector Revelles and Jerica Marrero of Puerto Rico in the mixed doubles semi-finals, and Burke and Montes met Mario Lobo and Brionith Croes of Aruba in a quarter-final match-up. Other results: Men: 5 & 6: Guatemala beat Jamaica 3-1; 7 & 8: Aruba beat Guyana 3-1; 9 & 10: St Vincent and the Grenadines beat St Lucia 3-2 Women: 3 & 4: Puerto Rico beat Aruba 3-1; 5 & 6: Guyana beat Barbados 3- 1; 7 & 8: Guatemala beat St Vincent and the Grenadines 3-0.