Success in Santiago, birthday girl leads Brazil in Buenos Aires

by Ian Marshall, Editor

The tournament follows what has been a very busy time for Brazil’s aspiring players. In addition to the tournaments in Chile, more recently at the Brazilian Paralympic Training Centre in São Paulo, staged from Thursday 28th to Sunday 31st March, the 2019 South-Southeast Brazil Cup was held.

Leticia Nakada emerged the women’s singles champion in São Paulo (Photo: Daniel Zappe/CBTM)

A key factor in the tournament was that both able bodied competed alongside para players, no less than 516 players registered in the former, for those with a disability, the number was 111 in total.

Guilherme Marcio da Costa emerged successful in the Para events. He won men’s singles class 2(Photo: Daniel Zappe/CBTM)

Organised under the direction of Edimilson Pinheiro, the Event Leader of the Brazilian Table Tennis Confederation, a total of 20 tables were in constant use.

“In this edition of Copa Brazil we received a large number of entries and prepared a structure to best serve the Olympic and Paralympic athletes in four days of intense competition. All the equipment used was of Olympic level, from the table to the floor imported from the last Olympic Games. In addition, we established a partnership with TVNSports; they broadcast live our main matches on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.” Edimilson Pinheiro

Diogo Silva won the junior boys’ singles title in São Paulo (Photo: Daniel Zappe/CBTM)

Notably successful was Diogo Silva, he won the junior boys’ singles title; at the South American Championships, in the men’s team event which commences proceedings, he lines up alongside Israel Barreto and Lucas Paiva.