National Senior Table Tennis Championships commence

ꟷVan Lange, Ninvalle, Billingy among winners

By Timothy Jaikarran

The National Seniors Table Tennis Championships commenced at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall at 16:00 hrs on Friday January 31, 2020 with all the players seeming poised and ready for action.
The first category to be contested was the Male U21. There were four groups in this category, and each group was comprised of four players. According to the rules, after the first stage, the top two players from each group would advance to the knockout stages.
The first encounter featured Elishaba John and Colin Wong. This matchup was easily won by John, with scores of 11-6, 11-9 and 11-5. He then won his second encounter, against Peter Persaud, 11-1, 11-6 and 11-5. John eventually topped Group One to advance to the knockout stage alongside Wong, who came in second.
In Group 2, Kaysan Ninvalle and Krystian Sahadeo were the qualifiers. Ninvalle made light work of his opponents, defeating Chad Outar 1-11, 11-4, 11-8, but losing to Sahadeo 2-3 as a total of five matches were played, with Sahadeo besting him.
Jonathan Van Lange also headed into the knockout stages, after another flawless victory; as did Terrence Rausch of Group 3 and Jamal Nicholas and Isaiah Layne of Group 4.

Open “C” Class
Sixteen persons contested this category of the competition, with four groups each comprising of four players. Topping Group One was Jasmine Billingy, who defeated Narren Persaud 11-6, 11-6, 6-11, 5-11, 11-9; and Mohammed Baksh 11-0, 11-9, 1-11, 11-9.
Persaud emerged second in the group, after defeating Baksh 3-11, 10-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-5; and thrashing Mark Evans.
Group Two saw Gerendra Mookram and Yuteshwar Persaud emerge as victors. Mookram defeated Samara Sukhai 11-5, 11-8, 11-7; Uriel Isadore 11-8, 11-9, 11-8, and Persaud 15-10, 9-11, 11-6, 5-11, 11-5.
Persaud placed second, after winning his matches 3-1 and 3-0.
Also qualifying were Kyle Chung and Abdool Aleem Rahim of Group 3, and Troy McRae and Peter Persaud of Group 4.