Trinidad and Tobago table tennis ace Dexter St Louis and Rheann Chung won the Mixed Doubles crown as the 53rd Senior Championships continued in Guyana.
Also, TT grabbed silver in both the Men’s and Women’s Doubles as well as the Men and Women’s team event.
The St Louis/Chung combination took on Dominica Republic’s Eva Brito and Juan Vila in the final and blew them away in three sets to clinch this country’s first gold medal at the championships
The TT duo won the first set 11-6 and made it 2-0 with an 11-4 win in the second. Their rivals put up a better fight in the third but Chung and St Louis prevailed 12-10. The French-based players dropped just two sets throughout the tournament, winning their semi-final match against Dominica Republic’s J Valdes and Emil Santos 3-2 (6-11, 11-6, 11-7, 8-11, 11-7).
They were victorious in the previous two matches 3-0.
In the Men’s Doubles final, St Louis and Curtis Humphreys were no match for Dominica Republic’s J Vila and Emil Santos, losing 5-11, 7-11, 9-11.
The pair had earlier beaten Guyana’s Paul David and Idi Lewis 3-2 (11-2, 10- 12, 11-7, 6-11, 11-6) in the “semis”.
In the women’s final, Chung and Aleena Edwards lost 1-3 (9-11, 6-11, 11-8, 7-11) against Dominica’s E Brito and J Valdes.
On Sunday, Dominican Republic edged TT 3-2 in the men’s final while the TT women went under to the same opponents by a similar score-line in round robin play.
In men’s action, St Louis was beaten in five sets by Emil Santos, but rallied to get past Vila 3-0.
Curtis Humphreys got past Samuel Malvez 8-11, 11-9, 6-11, 11-7, 11-9 but TT’s Michael Nanton lost to both Vila and Santos.
Earlier, TT’s ping pong men beat Guadeloupe and Guyana 3-1 respectively to top Group I with a perfect record.
St Louis won his matches against Gregory Cuirassier (11-6, 12-10, 11-4) and Jean-Michael Boissard (11-4, 11-3, 11-5) in the tie with Guadeloupe while Humphreys breezed past Boissard 11-4, 11-5, 11-3. TT’s lone casualty was Michael Nanton who went under to Cedric Cideme 4-11, 14-12, 8-11, 6-11.
St Louis was again in ripping form against Guyana with comfortable victories against Idi Lewis and Christopher Franklin.
St Louis slammed Lewis in three games 12-10, 11-5, 11-8 and needed just one more to beat Christopher Franklin 11-6, 11-5, 8-11, 11-5.
Humphreys got the better of Paul David in five gritty games 11-8, 6-11, 11-7, 7-11, 12-10. Reeza Burke lost his match versus Franklin 9-11, 11-5, 6-11, 8- 11.
In the women’s team final, Chung beat Johenny Valdez 11-7, 11-8, 11-7 but lost to Brito in four sets.
TT’s Linda Partap-Boodhan got the better of Kircia Diaz. However, national champion Aleena Edwards was defeated by both Brito and Valdez
