T&T’s Malik Gopaul and Lyllana Boodhan missed out on a chance at a medal after losing their Under-11 Mixed Doubles quarterfinal at the Caribbean Regional Table Tennis Federation Mini and Pre-Cadet Championship competition in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Friday.
The T&T duo of started the round-of-16 with a tense win over Guyana’s Samara Sukhai and Ebo Mc Neil 12-10, 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-8, however, in the quarterfinals, Gopaul and Boodhan were stopped by Puerto Rico’s Danelys Cruz and Sebastien Cruz 5-11, 3-11, 11-5, 4-11.
The two other T&T teams in the U-11 Mixed Doubles failed to get past the first round after the Dominican Republic Hopes Camp girls’ winner Carolina Sosa and boys’ runner-up Alexander Tejada ousted T&T’s Chloe Fraser and Dillon Bruce (TT) 11-2, 11-7, 11-5 while Puerto Ricans Steven Moreno and Valentina Davila, who won a playoff qualifier with Dominican Republic’s Alexander Perez and Cecely Polanco, defeated T&T’s Gabriel John and Ashlea Mohammed 12-10, 11-9, 11-6.
In the U-13 Mixed Doubles, Jamaicans Matthew Fung and Olivia Peterkin ousted T&T’s lone entrant, Sameer Ali and Shreya Maraj, in the last-16, 3-1 (11-3, 8-11, 11-5, 11-3).
T&T also struggled in the Boys’ Doubles with Ali and Gopaul losing their U-13 round-of-16 clash with Eduardo Darley and Yoel Mendoza of Dominican Republic, 4-11, 2-11, 5-11 while Samuel Humphreys and Sachin Ramsumair were ousted at the last-eight hurdle by Guyana’s Jonathan Vanlange and Colin Wong, 3-11, 4-11, 13-15.
In the Boys’ Doubles U-11 quarterfinal, T&T’s Dillon Bruce and Gabriel John came up short versus Carl Wythe and Nickoy Smith of Jamaica, 11-5, 3-11, 11-13, 7-11.
In the U-11 Girls’ Doubles quarterfinals, Chloe Fraser and Ashlea Mohammed were humbled by Dominican Republic’s Cecely Polanco and Edwanny De La Cruz, 8-11, 6-11, 11-2, 12-14 while Lyllana Boodhan and Shreya Maraj were ousted by Puerto Ricans Danelys Cruz and Adriana Vargas, 5-11, 7-11, 8-11.
The tournament will continue today with the start of the singles in all four categories from 9.30 am.
