Chung wins but T&T teams beaten in Caribbean Champs opener | Local Sports

The BOTH Trinidad and Tobago teams were beaten by Puerto Rico when the Caribbean Table Tennis Championships served off yesterday in Cuba.

Rheann Chung actually won her two matches, but her inexperienced teenaged team-mates expectedly failed to secure the other point in the Group One fixture.

The men’s team is also in Group One and was scheduled to tackle Jamaica last night after being swept 3-0 during the day session without the services of the United States-based former National Champion Khaleel Asgarali.

The top-ranked Aaron Wilson was the only player who actually managed the game, taking the third in his 11-4, 12-10, 8-11, 11-7 defeat by Angel Naranjo.

Oscar Birriel then completed the demolition for the Puerto Ricans by whipping Joshua Maxwell 11-7, 11-6, 11-7.

T&T were up against it from the start when Daniel Gonzalez crushed 18-year-old Derron Douglas 11-5, 11-2, 11-3.

This country men will conclude their campaign in the round-Robin stage against the Dominican Republic during the day session today.

Hosts Cuba won all three matches in straight games against Barbados in Group 2, but no scores from the Haiti / Guyana fixture were available by press time.

Even with the France-based Chung included, it was always going to be an extremely difficult for the T&T Women’s outfit as the other players are Chloe Fraser and Imani Edwards-Taylor, who are just 13 and 16 years old, respectively.

After hammering Fabiola Diaz 11-3, 11-4, 11-5 to level proceedings at one, the five-time Caribbean singles champ roared back from two games down to nose out Daniely Rios 3-11, 7-11, 11-3 , 11-7, 13-11 and force the decider.

But then Diaz completed the job for Puerto Rico with an 11-3, 12-10, 11-8 triumph over Fraser, who had lost the opening match 11-2, 11-4, 11-5 against Rios.

Edwards-Taylor went down the third match of the fixture, 11-5, 11-4, 11-3 against Fabiola Diaz.

With just three teams in this group, the T&T trio only has one more fixture in the round-Robin phase and will return during the day session today to tackle the Guyanese, who were scheduled to face Puerto Rico last night.

Cuba and the Dominican Republic scored 3-0 wins over Barbados and Jamaica, respectively, to begin Group Two action yesterday.

The top two teams from each group will advance to the semi-finals Tonight and the Champions should also be crowned during this session.

The singles will begin Tomorrow and conclude when the tournament ends on Tuesday. The men’s, women’s and mixed doubles draws will take place over the weekend.

There are no Masters, Veterans’ or Under-21 events in this year’s edition.