National player Joel Alleyne and 12 years old Jasmine Billingy crowned male and female Independence TT champions

Jun 01, 2023 Sports

Some action at the Independence Table Tennis competition.

Kaieteur Sports – The curtains recently came down on the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA), National Sports Commission (NSC) 2023 Independence Table Tennis competition which was played at the National Gymnasium. In the end, National player Joel Alleyne and up and coming youngster Jasmine Billingy were crowned senior male and female champions.

Senior female champion 12 years old Jasmine Billingy.

In the male division, Alleyne battled back from a game down to defeat the resurging Nigel Bryan 3-2.
Bryan won the first game 11-9, before Alleyne evened the clash with a hard-fought 12-10 win. The eventual winner pulled ahead 11-7 in the third clash before Bryan stormed back with an 11-8 win to draw the clash even at 2-2. In the final game, it could have gone either way, but Alleyne pulled off a victory.
Both Alleyne and Bryan won their semifinal encounters by 3-1. Alleyne won from Elishaba Johnson after four hard fought games 11-5, 10-12, 12-10 and 11-5.
Bryan got past Ebo McNeil 11-6, 11-13, 11-6 and 11-7.

Billingy, not yet a teenager, was dominant in the female sector which was played on a round robin basis. Competing against some of the top young female players in the country, the 12 years old Billingy, played unbeaten after four games to take top honours in the senior female category.

Senior male champion Joel Alleyne in action.

Second place went to Samara Sukhai with three wins with Akira Watson third.
Billingy, also won the U13 and U15 girls’ titles. Her march to a clean sweep in the female division was thwarted by Sukhai when they clashed in the U19 division losing 3-1 after winning the first game, the scores being 7-11, 11-8, 11-9, 14-12.
Watson and Seona Barker were declared joint third place.

The ‘B’ Division segment was won by Niran Bisshu who defeated Levi Percival 3-1.
The Boys U19 division saw Jonathan Van Lange defeating Umar Percival 3-0 in the final.
There was a Novice category which saw Jaden Trotman being crowned the champion.

Other results in the boys segments saw Moore returned to take top honours in the U15 category with Kayden Meusa winning the U13 division. Darius Daniels won the U11 crown and Zion Hickerson the U9 division. (Samuel Whyte)