JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Thursday, July 24, 2025

T&T women get Team bronze after 3-2 semis loss

by

Nigel Simon
461 days ago
20240419

France-based Rheann Chung won both her match­es but it was not enough as T&T fell to a 3-2 de­feat against Puer­to Ri­co in their women’s team semi­fi­nal at the Se­nior Caribbean Ta­ble Ten­nis Fed­er­a­tion at the Par­que del Este Ta­ble Ten­nis Hall, San­to Domin­go, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic on Wednes­day.

Buoyed by their 3-2 up­set of host the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic in their fi­nal Group Two match to end with a 1-1 pool record and se­cure a semi­fi­nal spot be­hind Cu­ba who end­ed 2-0, the T&T women were hope­ful of pulling off an­oth­er stun­ner against the Puer­to Ri­cans who topped Group One with vic­to­ries over Guyana and Bar­ba­dos.

A five-time Caribbean Women’s Sin­gles cham­pi­on, Chung hand­ed T&T the per­fect start against the Puer­to Ri­cans when he de­feat­ed Fabi­o­la Di­az 8-11, 11-6, 11-8, 9-11, 11-7 but the Span­ish-speak­ing was quick­ly back on lev­el terms at 1-1 via Bri­an­na Bur­gos’ 11-6, 11-9, 11-3 beat­ing of Chloe Fras­er.

Ed­marie Leon then put Puer­to Ri­co ahead for the first time in the best-of-five se­ries at 2-1 fol­low­ing her 11-7, 11-7, 11-7 de­feat of Imani Ed­wards-Tay­lor, but Chung came up trump for T&T to end the se­ries to a de­ci­sive fifth match af­ter beat­ing Bur­gos 11-8, 14-12, 11-8.

How­ev­er, Fras­er could not re­peat her hero­ics from the round-robin Group Two clash with host Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic and went un­der to Di­az, 7-11, 8-11, 9-11, leav­ing T&T to set­tle for the bronze medal along with fel­low Caribbean coun­try Guyana, who were beat­en 3-0 in the oth­er semi­fi­nal by Cu­ba. On Wednes­day in their must-win clash with T&T, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five se­ries when Eva Brito de­feat­ed 15-year-old Fras­er 11-6, 11-7, 3-11, 11-7 but Chung got T&T on lev­el terms cour­tesy her 11-7, 12-10, 8-11, 11-7 vic­to­ry against Es­mer­lyn Cas­tro.

The see-saw bat­tle swung back in Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic’s favour thanks to Yasiris Or­tiz’s straight­for­ward 11-4, 11-2, 11-6 win against Imani Ed­wards-Tay­lor 11-4, 11-2, 11-6 but once again, Chung drew T&T even, this time as 2-2 af­ter she out­played Brito 11-9, 11-8, 11-7 to set up the de­cid­ing con­test be­tween Fras­er and Cas­tro, which the for­mer won 11-5, 7-11, 11-9, 11-6. On Tues­day in their open­ing match, T&T went un­der 3-0 to Cu­ba with Fras­er, who plays for GV Hen­nebont in France and re­cent­ly made an im­pres­sive de­but in the Na­tion­al 1 Ta­ble Ten­nis Critéri­um Fédéral Tour­na­ment in Pont-à-Mous­son, France win­ning both the Se­nior Women’s Elite B and the Ju­nior Women’s Elite B, los­ing to Es­tela Cre­spo 11-4, 11-7, 6-11, 6-11, 9-11 in the open­er.

Chung was then beat­en by Ros­al­ba Aguila 12-14, 6-11, 11-9, 7-11 and Ed­wards-Tay­lor went un­der to Kar­la Perez-Gon­za­lez 11-7, 5-11, 4-11, 6-11.

In the men’s team com­pe­ti­tion, T&T fell one win away from at least a bronze medal af­ter go­ing down to Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic in one of two quar­ter­fi­nals with Aaron Wil­son, Arun Roop­nar­ine and Luc O’Young, all tast­ing de­feat yes­ter­day. Wil­son put up a spir­it­ed ef­fort in his 5-11, 8-11, 10-12 loss to Rafael Cabr­era; Roop­nar­ine was over­whelmed by Isaac Vi­la 11-9, 7-11, 4-11, 12-14; and O’Young proved no match for Abit Te­ja­da los­ing 4-11, 2-11, 6-11.

In the morn­ing ses­sion, T&T men blanked Ja­maica 3-0 with Wil­son beat­ing Mark Phillips 11-4, 11-7, 11-9; O’Young sweep­ing past Emani Mc Pher­son 11-9, 16-14, 11-9 and Roop­nar­ine, an 11-7, 9-11, 11-4, 8-11, 11-8 win­ner against Ro­han Lewis, to end with a 1-1 record in Group Three and the sec­ond spot be­hind un­beat­en Bar­ba­dos who end­ed 2-0 while Ja­maica was win­less from their two en­coun­ters.

In the open­ing round, T&T was edged out by Bar­ba­dos 2-3 in their Group Three cur­tain-rais­er with Wil­son beat­ing Mark Dow­ell 11-9, 11-9, 11-7 and O’Young an 8-11, 11-3, 11-4, 11-4 vic­tor against Tre Ri­ley. How­ev­er, Bar­ba­dos got wins from Tyrese Far­ley over Arun Roop­nar­ine 11-3, 11-7, 16-14 and Wil­son 11-6, 11-6, 11-8 and Dow­ell over Roop­nar­ine 11-4, 11-8, 14-12 in the de­cider to snatch the win.

Last night, the men’s and women’s sin­gles com­pe­ti­tions served off with Ed­wards-Tay­lor, Jor­dan Thong, O’Young and Wil­son all in ac­tion. Ed­wards-Tay­lor was to face Puer­to Ri­co’s Bri­an­na Bur­gos and Jor­dan Thong com­pet­ed in Group Four ver­sus Puer­to Ri­can Fabi­o­la Di­az in the women’s sin­gles while O’Young came up against Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic’s Isaac Vi­la, and Wil­son tack­led Bar­ba­di­an Ro­mario Gill.

To­day, Roop­nar­ine will be­gin his cam­paign against An­gel Naran­jo of Puer­to Ri­co and Jame­son Bernard of Haiti in Group One; O’Young com­pletes his se­ries against Cuban Rene Mendez in Group Nine, in Group II Ma­lik Gopaul plays St Lu­cian De An­dre Calderon and Aruban Bryan Lopes and in Group 12, Wil­son will tack­le Puer­to Ri­can Jab­diel Tor­res.

In the women’s sin­gles, Ed­wards-Tay­lor faces Cuban Kar­la Perez Gon­za­lez in Group One; Fras­er con­tests Group Three against Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic’s Shary Munoz, and Bar­ba­di­an Qadesh Weekes; Thong com­pletes her Group Four se­ries ver­sus Guyana’s Na­tal­ie Cum­mings, and Chung bat­tles Es­tela Cre­spo of Cu­ba, and Guyana’s Jas­mine Billingy in Group Five. Al­so to­day, the men’s dou­bles serve off with round-of-32 clash­es, T&T’s O’Young and Gopaul fac­ing St Lu­cians Joshua Lu­bin and Manie Eleuthere, while Roop­nar­ine and Wil­son come up against Arubans Bryan Lopes and Shaofeng Xie. In the mixed dou­bles round-of-16, Roop­nar­ine and Chung bat­tle Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic’s Rafael Cabr­era and Brito, and Wil­son and Fras­er face Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic’s Ra­mon Vi­la and Yasiris Or­tiz.

The women’s dou­bles serve off to­mor­row (on Sat­ur­day) with the round-of-16 and T&T will be rep­re­sent­ed by Fras­er and Jor­dan Thong against Puer­to Ri­cans Bri­an­na Bur­gos and Fabi­o­la Di­az while Chung and Ed­wards-Tay­lor play Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic’s Dafne Sosa and Dahyana Ro­jas.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored