Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter
Dibbs ... claimed sole victory in play-off with Mexico.
THE JAMAICAN men's and women's teams had to settle for sixth and seventh respectively in the team competition at the Caribbean Table Tennis Championships (CTT) held at the Table Tennis Hall in Guatemala earlier this week.
Placed in four-team Group A along with the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and hosts Guatemala, the Jamaican men's team managed to get by the Dominican Republic 3-2 courtesy of wins from Christopher Marsh, who beat Juan Vila and Nigel Webb, who defeated Emil Santos and Villa in the second and fourth games, of the match.
However, the team then lost to Puerto Rico (3-2) and failed to win a game against hosts Guatemala (3-0) which placed them third in their group.
According to the competition format, the semi-finalists were awarded at least third-place finishes while all the others positions were played for.
In the battle for fifth place, Jamaica went down 3-1 to a Mexican team which had finished third in Group B. The only win of that match came for Joseph Dibbs who had to fight to get by Mexico's Rafael Mendez 5-11, 11-6, 11-13, 11-9, 11-8.
WON BY DEFAULT
The women's team finished seventh after placing fourth in Group B. They won by default in the play-off against Honduras, who were the fourth-place finishers in Group A .
At the group stage, the team beat Puerto Rico but suffered losses to Barbados, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
In the men's title game, Guatemala blanked defending champions Puerto Rico 3-0 to take the crown.
In the women's final, El Salvador trounced Guatemala 3-0 to become the new champions. The individual events - men's and women's singles, men's, women's and mixed doubles - began yesterday and conclude tomorrow.
