Quebec and Ontario win singles gold at the 2023 Canada Games

The table tennis event concluded on Friday, February 24 at the PEI Convention Center at the 2023 Canada Games, which will be held from February 18 to March 5 in Prince Edward Island. Table tennis is part of the first week of the 2023 Canada Games. The competition ended with the long-awaited singles event. Quebec and Ontario shared the title with Quebec taking the boys title and Ontario winning the girls title. It should be noted that the two finals were against table tennis players from the same province.

Jessie Xu, (1^St seed) won 3-0 over her compatriot Demi Cai, who finished second in the tournament. A great achievement for him as it was his 4th medal including 3 golds and 1 silver for the Oakville, Ontario player. The only gold medal that eluded him in these Games is the mixed doubles (silver with Kevin Guo). Third place went to Sofia Li (7^th seed) from British Columbia, who caused a surprise by entering the match from 3rd place. The British Columbian defeated Alice Provencher (3^rd seed) from Quebec. The two players played a spectacular match for the large crowd that came to cheer. In the end, Li won 5 tight sets in the last set 12-10.

The men’s final featured two players from Quebec who were also tournament 2 favorites. In the end, Simon Martin beat Joakim Desmeules in four hotly contested rounds. Desmeules started the match very strongly, attacking every ball from his opponent, which allowed him to win the first set 11-6. Martin had to step it up in the next 3 sets to win the match 12-10, 13-11, 11-4. After the match, Martin told us that he remained confident despite Desmeules’ strong start. Martin, calm and in control as usual, explains that “It’s not over until all 3 rounds are over”. Wise words. Martin closed out the 2023 Canadian Games with a bang, winning gold in every event he entered: men’s singles, mixed doubles (Alice Provencher), men’s doubles (Joakim Desmeules) and men’s team competition (Joakim Desmeules).

The bronze medal match was between Jordan Grewal and Kevin Guo, both from Ontario. It was a 3 set win for Guo. Thus, he added this bronze medal to the three silver medals won earlier in the Games.

See you at the 2027 Canada Winter Games!