Britton, Johnson advance to Round of 32 at CAC Championships

Guyana’s Shemar Britton and Elishaba Johnson have progressed to the Round of 32 in the singles division of the Central America and Caribbean (CAC) Table Tennis Championships in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, following solid performances in the group stage on Sunday.
Britton was the standout performer for Guyana, opening his campaign with a commanding 3-0 win over Gabriel Quiros, taking the sets 11-7, 11-6 and 11-8. He then produced a strong comeback victory against Dominican Republic’s Rafael Cabrera. After dropping the first two sets 12-10 and 11-4, Britton recovered to win the next three 12-10, 11-4 and 11-9 to secure progression.
The Guyanese then completed a clean 3-0 result against Manie Eleuthere with scores of 11-4, 11-4 and 11-0 to top his group.

Johnson, meanwhile, rebounded after a slow start to book his place in the knockout round. He opened with a 3-0 loss to Guatemala’s Ricardo Gatica but responded with consecutive wins. Johnson defeated Jamaica’s Azizi Johnson 3-0 (11-9, 11-6, 11-7) and followed up with another straight-sets victory over St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Machalie Hazelwood, winning 11-2, 11-5, and 11-6.
In other results, Jonathan Van Lange opened with a 0-3 loss to Jabdiel Torres (4-11, 4-11, 5-11) before he secured a win for Guyana, defeating Costa Rica’s Sebastian Aviles 3-1. Van Lange took the contest 11-5, 7-11, 11-7 and 11-8. However, he later went down 3-1 to Dominican Republic’s Abit Tejada despite taking the opening set 11-4.

Niran Bissu endured a difficult group stage, losing all three of his matches. He was beaten 3-1 by Saint Lucia’s De Andre Calderon (11-3, 11-6, 6-11, 5-11), went down 3-2 in a closely-fought encounter against Barbados’s Mark Dowell (4-11, 9-11, 11-7, 13-11, 9-11), and suffered a 3-0 loss to Dominican Republic’s Isaac Vila (5-11, 7-11, 5-11).
With their group stage campaigns completed, Britton and Johnson will return to the table today as they contest their round of 32 matches.