Table Tennis: Guyana’s U-19 team storm into KO rounds at C’bbean Championships
- Colin Wong through to round-of-16 in U-15
All three of Guyana’s Under-19 boys at the ongoing Caribbean Youth Table Tennis Championships in the Dominican Republic have progressed to the knock-out stages after some impressive performances in the group stage.
National under-15 champion, Colin Wong, has also reached the round-of-16 stage.
The Under-19 trio of Jonathan Van Lange, Niran Bissu, and Krystian Sahadeo are now just two rounds away from the medal stage, as they all play round-of-16 ties from 10:45hrs on Tuesday.
Van Lange faces Jose Nieves of Puerto Rico; Bissu battles the hosts’ Yoel Mendoza, and Sahadeo up against another native, Cristopher Rrodriguez.
15-year-old Van Lange finished second in his group, as he secured wins over St. Lucia’s Rawson Harris (11-6, 11-1, 11-9) and Dominica’s Darling Castro (11-2, 11-3, 11-3) but went down to Puerto Rico’s Jabdiel Torres (11-9, 8-11, 7-11, 7-11).
Bissu also had two wins and one loss in the group, as he toppled Trinidadian Samuel Humphreys (10-12, 11-7, 11-6, 11-9) and Jamaica’s Rasheed Clarke (11-8, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6), lost to a hometown player – Abit Tejada – 4-11, 7-11,5-11.
Sahadeo was flawless in his group matches, with convincing wins over the hosts’ Andres Cedeno (11-7, 11-6, 11-4) and Jamaica’s Matthew Fung (11-3, 8-11, 11-2, 11-5) while he had a walkover against Haitian Donsley Estanus.
Additionally, Wong plays Tejada Alexander of the Dominican Republic from 10:00h in his round-of-16 tie.
He defeated Malik Gopaul of Trinidad (11-7, 11-5, 14-12, 11-5); Alwin Tejada (11-3, 11-1, 11-3), and Grenada’s Dewayne Dinnoh-Newland (11-6, 11-8, 11-7).
Teammates, Malachi Moore and Ebo McNeil, finished third and fourth in their groups but were unable to progress.
Both the Under-15 and Under-19 teams finished third in the group for the team segment, and as such, did not progress to the knockout stage.
President of the Guyana Table Tennis Association Godfrey Munroe had clarified that academic commitments by the female players meant they were unavailable to attend the championships.
