Guyana’s recently crowned Caribbean Under-21 Men’s table tennis champion Shemar Britton continues his progression when he won the Trinidad and Tobago Open Super Singles Men’s Open title.
The championship concluded last evening (December 5, 2018) at the National Racquet Centre, Orange Grove Main Road, Tacarigua.
Britton, a scholastically inclined, immensely talented and disciplined table tennis player and gifted athlete, is currently pursuing a law degree at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine.
He played under the Queen’s Park Table Tennis club banner, defeating all comers in the Men’s Singles round-robin finals involving Trinidad and Tobago’s national champion Curtis Humphrey’s of the WASA Table Tennis Club, Arun Roopnarine of the Arima Hawks, American-based Dayanand Maharaj, who plays for the Solo Crusaders Club, former Caribbean junior champion Luc O’ Young and Aaron Edwards.
Britton’s task of winning the championship was even more arduous, as being a player without a Trinidad and Tobago ranking he had to play in the qualification event to gain a place in the group stages.
In a very condensed format of competition, which had over 100 players competing for the coveted title, and required players bringing there A game from the outset, Britton and the other gladiators advanced into round-robin ‘Big Six’ finals from the knockout phase held on Sunday (December 2).
Humphrey of the WASA Table Tennis Club beat N’kosi Rouse in three straight sets (11-7, 11-2, 11-8) to move forward to the finals. Arun Roopnarine of the Arima Hawks did the same to Joshua Manswell (11-8, 11-8, 11-3).
Despite a little trouble in the third set, Britton took out former national champion Reeza Burke (11-5, 11-6, 13-15, 11-9) to move forward. American-based former national champion and national men’s team representative Dayanand Maharaj, who plays for the Solo Crusaders club, had to channel his inner Harry Houdini to recover from two sets down beat child prodigy Derron Douglas in a gruelling five-set clash (13-15, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-9).
Luc O’ Young moved past Everton Sorzano (14-12, 12-10, 11-9) to go to the final, and Aaron Edwards, another Queen’s Park Table Tennis team member, beat Andrew Alexander (12-10, 11-7, 11-6).
In the round-robin finals, Britton defeated Arun Roopnarine by a margin (3-0) margin, Arron Edwards (3-1), Luc O Young (3-1); Dayanand Maharaj by a (3-0) and Cutis Humphrey’s by a 3-2) margin to secure the title.
Britton, who will be doing battle for Guyana in the 2019 Senior Caribbean Table Tennis championships scheduled for March 9-17 at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, will be sacrificing his holiday season to commence intensifying his preparation for these critical championships with a training camp in China.
The 2019 Caribbean Championships will be the qualification event for the Caribbean to select one male and one female to represent the Caribbean Region at the 2019 Pan American games scheduled for August 2019 in Lima, Peru. (Info provided by Guyana Table Tennis Association)
