The Dominican Republic's Wu Xue during warm-up yesterday. - Carlington Wilmot/Freelance Photographer. CHINESE PLAYERS Lin Ju and Wu Xue of the Dominican Republic barely speak a word of English but around a table tennis table they are clearly understood.
Call it ping pong or table tennis, the game is the same for the two highly-rated players who are competing in the Caribbean Table Tennis Championships currently taking place at the University of Technology.
The opposition had better make no mistake as the two will use a paddle to chop, drive and loop their opponents so quick that if they as much as blink they may miss the ball.
Ju won the gold medal at the just-concluded Pan Am Games that his country hosted while Xue copped silver in the women's final.
Warming up yesterday, Xue made the coach look like he was the student while Ju easily defeated Vos Ronaldi 11-3, 11-2, 11-3 in Dom Rep's 3-0 win over Curacao during the morning session.
"Looking forward to games. Should be good play," Xue said.
The championships meanwhile officially started yesterday with a morning and an afternoon session with the opening ceremony in between.
Jamaica bowed into action against Curacao in group two men's action while the women went up against players from the Dominican Republic. The results were not available at press time.
The Barbadian men also played Guyana while Guyana took on Venezuela.
In the opening session Venezuela, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Dominican Republic, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and Puerto Rico all came out winners in their respective men's singles games.
Venezuela blanked Guyana 3-0, St Vincent beat Dominica 3-1 while the Dominican Republic got by Curacao 3-0. Trinidad & Tobago, despite the presence of highly rated Dexter St Louis, who is reportedly the best in the Caribbean, went down 2-3 to Puerto Rico.
Barbados won the women's match 3-0 over St Vincent & the Grenadines.
TODAY'S SCHEDULE
10:00 a.m.: (men) Barbados vs St. Vincent & the Grenadines, (men) Guyana vs Dominica, men) Jamaica vs T&T , (men) Puerto Rico vs Curacao, (women) T& T VS Guyana, (women) Barbados vs Jamaica. 4:00 p.m.: (men) Barbados vs Dominica (men) Curacao vs T&T. 6:30 p.m.: (men) Venezuela vs St. Vincent, (men) Puerto Rico vs Jamaica, (men) Dominica vs T&T, (women) Venezuela vs Guyana, (women) Dom Rep vs St. Vincent.
