A Guyana men’s table tennis team toppled their Jamaican counter parts to win the first annual Caribbean Cup table tennis competition which ended Sunday at the Brooklyn Health and Racket Club, the home club of the late Guyanese player and youth leader of the Mildred Mansfield Youth Club, Moses Kingston.

The tournament was organized by Dynamic Table Tennis Community [DTTC], led by Executive Director Owen Irving of Jamaica.

Two events were scheduled on Saturday but due to a very late start only the Caribbean Team Competition was played. Guyana and Jamaica fielded two teams, while the only other country represented was Haiti. The two favourites easily defeated the minnows leaving a grand finale between Guyana’s number one team of Paul David, Lester Cummings, Mosi Killikelly and the vastly-improved Shawn Embleton versus Jamaica’s Keith Evans, Ernest Virgo and Owen Irving.

This thrilling encounter went down to the wire with David coming from two games down to beat Evans in an emotionally charged classic. Embleton played a great match to defeat the very steady Virgo in five close games.

The tournament committee had invited three former Caribbean champions Stephen Hylton, Trevor Farley and Guyana’s Sydney Christophe to compete against a Select USA team in a special match.

However, the Caribbean Legends Team, as it was called, was weakened as only Christophe showed up. David and Evans were added as replacements.

An internationally-flavored team comprising of a Russian defensive player Slava Gottlieb and counter-hitting Czech female, Renatta Pulachova and the top US junior player Adam Hugh were chosen to oppose the Caribbean side.

This event displayed very high-quality table tennis, especially from Adam Hugh, who won all three of his games. His three straight wins over David was quite a surprise as David had beaten him in four straight games to win the Westfield NJ tournament exactly one week earlier.

Christophe narrowly defeated Pulachova in a five-game thriller. Her lightning-quick backhand smashes to Christophe’s power loops were nothing short of sensational. But the master was able to adjust his placement to nullify her counter-attacks. Christophe then completely destroyed the Russian chopper with a series of well-placed loops.

Hugh played exceptionally well to beat Christophe in four games but was fortunate to win the first and the fourth with Christophe having game-point in both. Hugh, however, showed poise and determination, uncharacteristic of a 14-year-old. His defence also surprised Christophe.

David, showing the effects of his efforts the previous day lost to Pulachova but crushed Gottlieb in the deciding match on four lopsided games.

The singles competition saw Hugh beating Tahl Lebovitz in the final which was shortened to three out of five games.

Paul David and Lester Cummings won the doubles final over Ernest Virgo and Keith Evans.

Many former national players were present including Bobby Cousins and Garfield Jones of Jamaica while Garth Issacs, Ashton Arthur and Benfield Munroe were some of the Guyanese.

The trophy presentation was done by two of Guyana’s beauty queens Olive Gopaul and Alexis Glasgow.