QUEEN’S PARK Table Tennis Club (QPCC) claimed the Men`s Division One and Women’s team titles at the TT Table Tennis Association’s National Tournament on Thursday at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya.
Joshua Maxwell was the most impressive player on the night, stunning number one ranked player Aaron Wilson in the semi-final and former national player Curtis Humphreys in the final.
QPCC made light work of WASA in the final, whipping them 3-0 to be crowned 2023 champions. QPCC’s pair of Yuvraaj Dookram and Derron Douglas won comfortably against Jean Marc Lee Fai and Alaric Humphreys 3-0 (11-4, 11-8, 11-3) in the first match, which was the doubles game. In the following match, Maxwell stunned former champion Curtis Humphreys 3-0 (11-8, 11-8, 11-7) to extend the lead to 2-0. In the next match, Douglas wasted little time in sweeping Alaric 3-0 (11-5, 11-4, 11-7) to lift the winner’s trophy.
In the semi-final, QPCC also claimed a 3-0 victory over Carenage Blasters. The pairing of Dookram/Douglas defeated brothers Nicholas and Luc O’Young 3-0 (11-6, 11-8, 11-9). Then Maxwell produced the shocker on the night in defeating Wilson 3-1 (13-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-8). Douglas once again closed off the match in emphatic style, winning against Luc 3-0 (11-7, 11-4, 11-9).
In the other semis, WASA trumped Arima Hawks 3-2 in the closest match of the night. Multiple national champion Reeza Burke and Arun Roopnarine took the lead with a 3-0 (12-10, 11-5, 11-3) triumph over Lee Fai/Alaric. The older Humphreys, Curtis, levelled the match at 1-1 when he comprehensively defeated Anson Wellington 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-8). Hawks retook the lead through Roopnarine who got past Alaric easily 3-0 (11-7, 11-5, 11-7). Curtis once again levelled the series 2-2 with an emphatic win against Burke 3-0 (11-9, 11-4, 11-7), setting up a winner-take-all in the final match between Lee Fai and Wellington. Lee Fai almost squandered a two-set lead against former national junior and senior player Wellington but held on to win 3-2 (11-5, 11:7, 4-11, 11-13, 11-9).
The QPCC women’s team of Imani Edwards-Taylor and Jordan Thang played unbeaten in the round robin team competition. QPCC defeated WASA 3-0, Crusaders 3-1 and Tunapuna Hindu School (THS) 3-0. The Crusaders team of Chloe Fraser and Mikah Stroute placed second with victories against THS 3-0 and WASA 3-0.
Carenage Blasters won the Division Two teams title while Crusaders were victorious in the Division Three category.
Next up on the agenda for table tennis is the Champions League tournament carded for August 23-28 at the Centre of Excellence.
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