Ma­lik Gopaul of So­lo Cru­saders com­plet­ed the dou­ble by win­ning both the T&T Ta­ble Ten­nis As­so­ci­a­tion Na­tion­al Un­der-15 and Un­der-19 Boys’ Sin­gles Tri­als Tour­na­ment at the Siparia Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre on Mon­day.

In the Un­der-19 Boys’ Tri­als, Gopaul was as equal­ly as im­pres­sive as he again fin­ished with an un­blem­ished record of four wins with­out a de­feat.

This time, he ral­lied past Ameer Mo­hamed 8-11, 11-3, 11-8, 11-7; Em­manuel Ed­wards 11-5, 11-7, 11-8; Christoff Roberts 16-14, 11-5, 11-2 and Samuel Humphreys 11-5, 11-6, 9-11, 13-11 to be the top-ranked play­er among the four qual­i­fied to rep­re­sent T&T at the In­ter­na­tion­al Ta­ble Ten­nis Fed­er­a­tion Pan Amer­i­can Un­der-19 Cham­pi­onship in Ar­genti­na, from Au­gust 2-7.

Roberts took the sec­ond spot with a 3-1 record af­ter beat­ing third-placed Humphreys (2-2), 11-7, 2-11, 13-11, 11-6 in their fi­nal round match while Mo­hamed se­cured the fourth and fi­nal spot on the team when he avoid­ed the wood­en spoon via his de­feat of win­less Ed­wards 12-10, 13-11, 11-7.

At the Caribbean Youth (U-15 and U-19) Ta­ble Ten­nis Cham­pi­onship in San­to Domin­go, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic ear­li­er this year, Mo­hamed and Humphreys formed part of the Un­der-19 Boys’ with Der­ron Dou­glas for a Team bronze medal.

Ear­li­er in the morn­ing ses­sion, Gopaul, the na­tion­al Un­der-15 run­ner-up to Gabriel John who opt­ed out of the tour­na­ment end­ed with a per­fect record of 5-0 fol­low­ing wins against WASA’s Jonathan Cot­toy, Sil­ver Bowl Un­der-13 win­ner Josi­ah Joseph of Pow­er­Gen, Sekel Mc In­tosh of D’Abadie Youths, Ethan Ram­cha­ran of Pow­er­Gen, and D’Abadie’s Ky­mani Hold­er in the Un­der-15 Boys’ Tri­als Tour­na­ment.

Gopaul sig­nalled his in­ten­tions from ear­ly on by beat­ing Cot­toy 11-4, 12-10, 11-9 and fol­lowed by out­last­ing Joseph 11-9, 9-11, 11-5, 11-7; beat­ing Mc In­tosh 11-7, 11-9, 11-2; Ram­cha­ran 11-7, 11-5, 9-11, 11-9, and Hold­er 11-7, 11-4, 11-6.

The Tri­als was used to se­lect na­tion­al teams for the two up­com­ing In­ter­na­tion­al Ta­ble Ten­nis Fed­er­a­tion (IT­TF) Pan Amer­i­can Ta­ble Ten­nis Tour­na­ment with Gopaul be­ing joined on the T&T team for the Un­der-15 Pan Amer­i­can Cham­pi­onships which comes off in Ecuador in Au­gust (23-28) by Joseph (4-1), Ram­cha­ran (3-2) and Cot­toy (2-3) who com­plet­ed the top four fin­ish­ers.

Hold­er was fifth with a 1-4 record via his open­ing-round vic­to­ry against win­less Mc In­tosh, who was part of the team along with Gopaul, Joseph, and Ram­cha­ran that earned a bronze medal in the Un­der-15 Boys Team com­pe­ti­tion at the Caribbean Youth Cham­pi­onship in San­to Domin­go.

RE­SULTS

Un­der-19 Boys

Round One:

Christoff Roberts bt Em­manuel Ed­wards 13-11,11-13, 11-7, 11-1

Ma­lik Gopaul bt Ameer Mo­hamed 8-11, 11-3, 11-8, 11-7

Round Two

Ma­lik Gopaul bt Em­manuel Ed­wards 11-5, 11-7, 11-8

Samuel Humphreys bt Ameer Mo­hamed 11-7, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9

Round Three

Ma­lik Gopaul bt Christoff Roberts 16-14, 11-5, 11-2

Samuel Humphreys bt Em­manuel Ed­wards 11-7, 11-8, 6-11, 11-8

Round Four

Christoff Roberts bt Ameer Mo­hamed 12-10, 9-11, 13-11, 8-11, 11-4

Ma­lik Gopaul bt Samuel Humphreys 11-5, 11-6, 9-11, 13-11

Round Five

Christoff Roberts bt Samuel Humphreys 11-7, 2-11, 13-11, 11-6

Ameer Mo­hammed bt Em­manuel Ed­wards 12-10, 13-11, 11-7.

Un­der-15 Boys

Round One

Ky­mani Hold­er bt Sekel Mc In­tosh 12-10, 4-11, 11-4, 11-7

Ma­lik Gopaul bt Jonathan Cot­toy 11-4, 12-10, 11-9

Josi­ah Joseph bt Ethan Ram­cha­ran 11-7, 9-11, 11-6, 11-5

Round Two

Ethan Ram­cha­ran bt Ky­mani Hold­er 11-6, 11-5, 11-5

Ma­lik Gopaul bt Josi­ah Joseph 11-9, 9-11, 11-5, 11-7

Jonathan Cot­toy bt Sekel Mc In­tosh 11-6, 10-12, 11-6, 16-14

Round Three

Josi­ah Joseph bt Ky­mani Hold­er 11-7, 11-3, 16-14

Ethan Ram­cha­ran bt Jonathan Cot­toy 11-9, 16-18, 11-8, 4-11, 11-9

Ma­lik Gopaul bt Sekel Mc In­tosh 11-7, 11-9, 11-2

Round Four

Jonathan Cot­toy bt Ky­mani Hold­er 6-11, 11-7, 11-4, 8-11, 11-7

Josi­ah Joseph bt Sekel Mc In­tosh11-7, 15-13, 10-12, 11-9

Ma­lik Gopaul bt Ethan Ram­cha­ran 11-7, 11-5, 9-11, 11-9

Round Five

Ma­lik Gopaul bt Ky­mani Hold­er 11-7, 11-4, 11-6

Ethan Ram­cha­ran bt Sekel Mc In­tosh 11-3, 11-8, 9-11, 11-1

Josi­ah Joseph bt Jonathan Cot­toy 11-7, 11-9, 11-6