Sahadeo and Van Lange impress on US Junior Table Tennis circuit

National Junior Cadet table tennis players and Bishops High School students, Kristian Sahadeo and Jonathan Van Lange, again turned in impressive performances on the USA Junior circuit when they participated in the monthly American Asian Cultural Centre Tribeca Table Tennis tournament held on Sunday (December 9) in Flushing, New York.

Sahadeo, a 2016 ITTF Caribbean World Hopes prospect, just off of his scintillating performance in the Joola North American Teams table tennis championships held over the Thanksgiving weekend with new rating of (1510), triumphed in the Under 1650 event.

Rebounding from an earlier loss in the group stages, he ousted number one seed Xiao E.Li (1558) 3-2 in the semi-finals before smashing past Grisel Thomas (1363) in the final.

He also participated in three other events, namely under 1850, 2050 and under 3900 Doubles. In the 1850, he managed to get to the semi-finals with 3-0 victories over Shaun Abrams (1783), Xiao Li (1558) and 3-2 against Kevin Chow (1097) in the group stage.

In the quarter-finals, he surged past Carlos Gutierrez (1593) whom he had earlier lost to in the 2050 event before bowing out to number two seed Jingjing He 3-0 in the next round. In the 2050, he failed to advance from his group, despite picking up single games against some 1800 level players.

Van Lange (1888), partnering NYU player Michael Song (1021), won the 3900 Doubles event, defeating all the teams in the round-robin finals.

In other events, he captured second place in the U-2050 event, losing to William Song (1931) 3-1 in the final.

In the 2150, he lost in the semi-finals to Amir Khan (1911) after having played unbeaten in the group stage with a victory over number two seed Mukaila Rabiu (2042).

Rabiu was again to have suffered at the hands of this young talent in the Under 2300 event in the group stages. Van Lange however,could not produce another whirlwind display, succumbing to Ren Lei (2008) 3-0 in the quarter-finals.

The players are scheduled to participate in a three-day Winter table tennis training camp and Westchester December Open before returning home first week in January.

The players are working under the tutelage of 11-time national champion Sydney Christophe, participating in training camps and competitions aimed at improving their technical and tactical abilities in preparation for other key regional encounters in 2019.

“Christophe indicated that he was very honoured to once again work with Guyana’s table tennis talents, he truly likes the attributes displayed by Jonathan and Krystian, who he believes have the talent to excel and reach the highest level once nurtured in the correct environment and are players coaches dream tenacious talent clever great work ethics and disciplined with Krystian being the very unassuming type but plays with a lot of grit and determination,” the Guyana Table Tennis Association said in a release.

Christopher is an ITTF Level Three Coach and ITTF Course Conductor with a wealth of experience.