Nigel Si­mon

Teenag­er Arun Roop­nar­ine joined fel­low teen Brit­tany Joseph as part of the T&T se­nior team for the 54th Se­nior Caribbean Ta­ble-Ten­nis Fed­er­a­tion Cham­pi­onship in San­to Domin­go, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic from Au­gust 22 to 26 when he topped the na­tion­al men's tri­al on Sun­day. Play­ing in a four-play­er round-robin se­ries at the Cen­tral Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na, Ch­agua­nas, 14-year-old Roop­nar­ine of Pow­er­Gen had vic­to­ries over Ever­ton Sorzano (D'Abadie Youths), Kyle Bor­neo (UTT) and Ken­win Small (Care­nage Blasters) to end with a 3-0 record. Roop­nar­ine first de­feat­ed Sorzano 4-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-8 af­ter which he al­so came from be­hind to beat Bor­neo 2-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-4 and Small, 15-17, 11-7, 12-10, 9-11, 11-6. The trio of Sorzano, Small and Bor­neo all end­ed with 1-2 records. This af­ter Sorzano beat Small 8-11, 13-11, 3-11, 11-4, 11-7 but lost to Bor­neo 11-6, 9-11, 9-11, 8-11 while Bor­neo lost to Small 6-11, 11-9, 5-11, 11-8, 4-11.

How­ev­er, Bor­neo had a bet­ter games won to games loss ra­tio than Sorzano and Small to fin­ish sec­ond. Roop­nar­ine now joins, France-based vet­er­an and four-time Caribbean sin­gles cham­pi­on Dex­ter St Louis, re­cent­ly crowned So­lo Na­tion­al cham­pi­on and top ranked lo­cal Cur­tis Humphreys and Bor­neo on the men's team. The lo­cal men who won the ti­tle in 2009 to end a 29-year drought will be seek­ing to im­prove on the sil­ver medal won last year in Guyana be­hind Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic. The team is ba­si­cal­ly the same as last year with Roop­nar­ine be­ing the lone new­com­er as the lo­cal as­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Reeza Burke, who was part of the team last year is now men's team coach. Last year, St Louis, who won his fourth sin­gles crown in 2009 came up short in his quest for a fifth men's ti­tle af­ter go­ing un­der to Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic's Juan Vi­la in the gold medal match 15-13, 9-11, 5-11, 7-11, 8-11 while Humphreys was a los­ing semi­fi­nal­ist.

The women's team will be al­so be go­ing af­ter the gold medal af­ter get­ting sil­ver be­hind Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic as well.

Lead­ing the women's ti­tle-bid will be reign­ing Caribbean and four-time win­ner, France-based Rheann Chung, St Louis' step-daugh­ter. She will be joined by So­lo Na­tion­al run­ner-up Lin­da Par­tap-Bood­han, Ash­ley Quashie and 14-year-old Brit­tany Joseph, the new­ly crowned na­tion­al cham­pi­on. St Louis and Chung are al­so the de­fend­ing mixed dou­bles cham­pi­on and six-time win­ners while St Louis and Humphreys got sil­ver in the mixed dou­bles, and Chung and nine-time na­tion­al women's cham­pi­on, Aleena Ed­wards, sil­ver in the women's dou­bles last time out. How­ev­er, Ed­wards who went un­der to Joseph in the na­tion­al semi­fi­nals last week is un­avail­able this time around. Pri­or to their par­tic­i­pa­tion in Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, Joseph and Roop­nar­ine will com­pete in the World Ju­nior Cir­cuit Tour from Au­gust 9 to 16 in San Sal­vador, El Sal­vador. They will then jour­ney to San­to Domin­go, where they will com­pete in the Un­der-21 Cham­pi­onships as well while US-based Dayanand Ma­haraj com­petes in the Over-45 (Mas­ters) Di­vi­sion.

T&T squad

Men: Dex­ter St Louis, Cur­tis Humphreys, Arun Roop­nar­ine, Kyle Bor­neo.

Tech­ni­cal staff: Reeza Burke (coach), Col­in Cud­joe (man­ag­er)

Women: Rheann Chung, Lin­da Par­tap-Bood­han, Brit­tany Joseph, Ash­ley Quashie.

Un­der-21: Brit­tany Joseph, Arun Roop­nar­ine

Over-45 (Mas­ters): Dayanand Ma­haraj

World Ju­nior Cir­cuit (El Sal­vador): Brit­tany Joseph, Arun Roop­nar­ine