JAMAICA'S WOES at the 43rd Caribbean Table Tennis Championships continued yesterday with all of the country's players failing to make it to at least the quarter-final stage of men's singles action.
England-based Darren Blake, Gavin Hylton, Samuel Lamount and Keith Avans all made it through to the round of 16 but failed to advance further. Blake was thrashed 4-1 by Jonathon Pino of Venezuela (8-11, 11-9, 7-11, 4-11 and 5-11), Hylton went down to defending champion Trevor Farley by the same margin (11-6, 4-11, 7-11, 9-11, 12-14), as did Evans, who was beaten by Farley's younger brother Kevin (9-11, 11-9, 7-11, 7-11, 5-11).
Meanwhile, Farley has the opportunity to retain his singles title when he clashes with Chinese-born Dominican Republic athlete Lin Ju in one of the two semi-finals. Farley, who earned his semi-final berth by way off holding off Puerto Rico's Santiago Coste 4-3 (11-4, 9-11, 11-7,1 1-8, 6-11, 11-5) is optimistic about lifting the men's singles crown.
"During the first part of the tournament I wasn't happy with the atmosphere and the surroundings but now I am coming into it and I think I can do better as time goes by," Farley said.
Although Ju is the Pan American gold medallist, Farley thinks he can beat him.
"I think I can get over him. I just have to keep steady and focused and keep my concentration going".
In the other semi-final games completed, the Dominican Republic's Roberto Brito trounced Robert Roberts of Barbados 4-0, Trinidad and Tobago's Dexter St. Louis was a 4-1 winner over Pino and Ju wrapped up Kevin Farley 3-0 in a game that contained probably the most entertaining set of the day. That was the third which saw Farley battling with Ju and both players displaying tremendous skill and concentration levelling at 11-11, 12-12, 13-13, 14-14, 15-15, 16-16, before Ju emerged the winner at 18-16.
Today will see action in the veteran and Under-21 male and female singles semi-finals starting at 10:00 a.m., with the finals beginning at 4:00 p.m.
The women's singles semi-finals begin at 5:30 p.m. while the male event gets going 6:30 p.m.. The women's finals starts at 7:30 p.m. while the men's final begins an half hour later.
