Imposing on opening day, same again as final places reserved

by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

Cuba selecting Livan Martinez, Jorge Campos and Carlos Hernandez accounted for the Puerto Rican trio of Hector Berrios, Ricardo Jimenez and Sebastian Echavarria by three matches to one; the player to cause the eventual victors problems being Sebastian Echavarria, in a contest where the visitors gave the host nation more than food for thought.

In the third match of the fixture, Sebastian Echevarria beat Carlos Hernandez by the very narrowest of margins (9-11, 11-8, 2-11, 13-11, 11-9), before in a similarly hard fought duel; Hector Berrios, time and again on duty with Brian Afanador and Daniel Gonzalez but neither present in Havana, came so close to levelling matters. He was beaten in five games by Jorge Campos (6-11, 11-4, 11-5, 7-11, 11-8).

The Puerto Rican recovery came after Livan Martinez had overcome Hector Berrios in four games (9-11, 17-15, 14-12, 11-7) and Jorge Campos had accounted for Ricardo Jimenez by the same margin (7-11, 11-3, 11-5, 11-9).

Meanwhile, in the corresponding semi-final, the Dominican Republic displayed no charity. The trio formed by Samuel Galvez, Emil Santos and Mariano Lockward overcame Aruba’s Benny Chung, Johnatan Paredes and Jean-Pierre Helmeyer by three matches to nil.

Earlier with Ricardo Jimenez, Hector Berrios and Gabriel Perez in action, Puerto Rico had recorded a three-nil win in opposition to Jamaica’s Simon Tomlinson, Rajni Gavin Brown and Kyle Davidson.

Somewhat similarly, at the same stage, fielding Johnatan Paredes, Benny Chung and Jean-Claude Hoek, a three-one success had been recorded by Aruba in opposition to St. Lucia’s Adrian Albert, Chris Wells and Andrew Daniels. The player to cause Aruba problems was Adrian Albert; in the opening match of the fixture he accounted for Johnatan Paredes (11-1, 11-5, 11-7), before in the fourth contest coming perilously close beating Benny Chung. He experienced defeat by the minimal margin in the decisive fifth game (8-11, 11-6, 11-5, 5-11, 11-9).

Bronze medals for Aruba and Puerto Rico; Jamaica duly overcame St Lucia by three matches to one to secure fifth position with St. Kitts and Nevis, followed by Guyana and Dominica completing the ranked order.

The final of the Men’s Team event will be played on Thursday 20th July.