Nigel Si­mon

As was ex­pect­ed the France-based duo of five-time Caribbean sin­gles cham­pi­on, Dex­ter St Louis and his step-daugh­ter Rheann Chung cap­tured the So­lo Na­tion­al Ta­ble Ten­nis Cham­pi­onship men and women ti­tles at the Cen­tral Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na, Ch­agua­nas on Mon­day night.

The 47-year-old St Louis of So­lo Cru­saders, ranked third for the tour­na­ment got the bet­ter of 64-year-old Cana­da-based David Ma­habir, 8-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-1, 11-7, 11-9.

Ear­li­er on, when the tour­na­ment re­sumed on the night, St Louis who won the mixed dou­bles with Chung, but was oust­ed at the semi­fi­nal round of the men's team com­pe­ti­tion by Ari­ma Hawks de­feat­ed Caribbean Ju­nior cham­pi­on and Se­nior bronze win­ner, Aaron Wil­son of Blasters 11-6, 11-9, 11-8, 11-2 and then dumped last year's win­ner Yu­vraaj Dookram of WASA 11-7, 11-2, 12-10, 11-3.

Ma­habir, who was crowned na­tion­al cham­pi­on two years ago eased past five-time cham­pi­on Reeza Burke of Hawks 15-13, 11-4, 11-9, 11-4 fol­lowed by an 11-5, 11-5, 11-9, 7-11, 11-7 tri­umph over top ranked lo­cal Cur­tis Humphreys of WASA.

In the oth­er quar­ter­fi­nal match­es, Humphreys ac­count­ed for Arun Roop­nar­ine 4-11, 12-10, 11-8, 4-11, 11-7 and Dookram si­lenced Hawks' vet­er­an and for­mer na­tion­al and Caribbean cham­pi­on, Li­onel Darceuil 15-13, 11-8, 11-3, 11-9.

Chung de­thrones

Ed­wards as women's champ

Chung had a much eas­i­er night as she won both her match­es in straight sets to de­throne 11-time win­ner Aleena Ed­wards.

In fact, Chung of Cru­saders over­came Ed­wards of the Uni­ver­si­ty of T&T in their high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed semi­fi­nal 11-8, 11-6, 13-11, 11-3 be­fore she hum­bled an­oth­er of her na­tion­al team-mates Lin­da Par­tap-Bood­han of Hawks, 11-9, 11-5, 11-4, 11-7 in the de­cider.

Par­tap-Bood­han won her semi­fi­nal 11-7, 9-11, 5-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-6 over for­mer ti­tlist, teenag­er Brit­tany Joseph, al­so of UTT.

In the quar­ter­fi­nals, Ed­wards who was part of the UTT team to win the women's team ti­tle de­feat­ed of Uni­ver­si­ty of West In­dies' Am­bi­ka Sitram 11-6, 11-6, 11-5; Chung out­classed vet­er­an play­er Mer­le Ba­goo of Queen's Park Crick­et Club, 11-7, 11-5, 11-5; Joseph swept aside To­ba­go Slam­mers' Ack­ay­la Lu­cas 11-3, 11-3, 11-5, and Par­tap-Bood­han oust­ed Pow­er­Gen's Cather­ine Spicer 10-12, 15-13, 11-5, 6-11, 11-8.

On Sat­ur­day night, 12-year-old Der­ron Dou­glas pow­ered Slam­mers to the Di­vi­sion Two Open Gen­der crown af­ter he played un­beat­en in a 3-1 whip­ping of last year's win­ners, UTT.

How­ev­er, it was UTT who made the bet­ter start with Davone Joseph beat­ing Benoni Daniel 4-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-7.

Dou­glas then whipped Ka­mal Hunte 11-5, 11-4, 11-5 to get his team back on lev­el terms while Shaquille Mitchell put Stars' ahead via his 11-3, 11-4, 11-6 vic­to­ry over Lamani Clarke be­fore Dou­glas re­turned to beat Joseph 11-7, 11-4, 11-5 to clinch the ti­tle.

Last week in the semi­fi­nals, UTT de­feat­ed Hi­malaya Sports Club by a 3-0 mar­gin with Joseph, Hunte and Clarke all in win­ners row and in the oth­er semis, Stars 'A' cre­at­ed some­what of an up­set as they dumped So­lo Cru­saders which fea­tured sev­en-times Caribbean mixed dou­bles cham­pi­on, Chung, 3-2.