TT teams folded under pressure - Christophe
By Donald Duff
Stabroek News
August 28, 2002
Manager/coach of the national junior table tennis team which returned home yesterday from Puerto Rico Sydney Christophe said the reason the boys team placed fifth and the girls fourth was that they failed to cope with the pressure.
"The overall results could have been much better but the players didn't play well under pressure," Christophe told Stabroek Sport.
"There were games that the players could have won but their mental energy was used in a negative rather than positive way," he added.
In the team events the boys team's only win was a 3-2 defeat of Trinidad where Jonathan Sankar won two games and Raymond Baksh one.
The boys team lost 3-0 to team winners Puerto Rico and 2-3 to Barbados with wins from Michael John and Sankar, Santo Domingo where Sankar and Shaka Forde won their matches and Venezuela where the winners were Baksh and Forde.
The girls lost 3-0 to team winners Venezuela, 3-1 to Puerto Rico with Trenace Lowe picking up the lone win and 3-0 to Santo Domingo.
They whipped Trinidad 3-0 and edged Barbados 3-2.
In the singles events Christophe said Michelle John who lost 4-3 to eventual girls champion Ruaida Ezzedinne of Venezuela played really well.
John after dropping the first two games at 8 and 5, won the next three 11-7, 11-5, 11-9 only to lose the remaining games 8-11, 4-11 in the round of 16 encounter.
Of the other two players Trenace Lowe failed to advance from the group while Jody Ann Blake reached the quarter-finals before bowling out to Veronica Mata 11-1, 11-7, 11-9, 12-10.
In the boys singles Baksh and John failed to advance from their groups but Forde and Sankar reached the last 16.
Forde was beaten 12-10, 15-13, 11-2, 6-11, 11-9 by Domingo Cordero of Venezuela while Sankar lost to Radhames Diaz of Santo Domingo 12-10, 12-10, 7-11, 8-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-8.
Christophe said all the teams had good players with some teams fielding players who were already members of the senior teams.