Clean Sweep for Saint Lucia

It was a clean sweep at the OECS Table Tennis Championships this weekend, with Saint Lucia emerging the winner of all titles – men’s and ladies teams, men’s and ladies open singles, men’s doubles, ladies doubles and mixed doubles

The Championships took off on Saturday with only four teams – Saint Lucia fielded an A and B team and the lone visiting team St Vincent the same. St Kitts were expected to attend and cancelled at the last minute due to travel difficulties. Although the absence of high performing teams like Dominica and Grenada was lamented, the standard of play was competitive among the four teams.

Saint Lucia A team – Adrian Albert, Chris Wells and Omarie Ferdinand emerged winners and St. Lucia B team- Adrian Glace, Orville Innocent and Franklin Noel placed second.

The same was repeated in the women’s division, St. Lucia A Team- Shermain Blasse Hyacinth and Dawn Charles placed first and St. Lucia B Team – Charmaine Polius and new comer to the OECS stage Simone Matthews took second place.

In women’s open events, overseas based and Canadian ranked player Charles proved her power and won all three titles. In the open singles she defeated defending ladies champion Hyacinth in the semifinals and went through with a quick win in the finals against Polius  11/9, 11/9, 10/12,11/8.

Charles teamed up with Hyacinth to win the ladies doubles against fellow Saint Lucians  Polius and Matthews winning 9/11, 11/8, 11/3, 11/4.

Charles also won the mixed doubles with Saint Lucia number two Chris Wells defeating Albert and Hyacinth in straight sets -11/7, 11/6 and 12/10.

The most outstanding of the Vincentian ladies were Tishuan Matthews and Unica Velox who place third in the teams event and ladies doubles.

In the Men’s, Saint Lucia’s number one Albert, three times winner of the OECS singles title defeated fellow Saint Lucian Glace 12/10, 11/8,11/2 in the men singles final. Defending OECS singles Champion and St Vincent’s top player Robert  Ballantyne was defeated in quarter finals by Wells.

Percival Dublin of St Vincent created a stir in the men’s singles, with an upset victory over Saint Lucia’s Ferdinand in the men’s quarter finals 3-2. He went on to lose in the semifinals to Glace 4/0.

In the men’s doubles Ferdinand and Glace emerged winners over Ballantyne and Joseph Carrington 12/10, 11/8/, 11/6.

President of the Saint Lucia National Table Tennis Association (SLNTTA), Teddy Matthews, was disappointed with the eventual turn out of teams at the OECS, but was satisfied with the Saint Lucia A and B team’s performance. He looks forward to a competitive performance of the Saint Lucian men’s team to improve last year’s fifth place position at the Caribbean Championships.  Matthews expressed hope that the Saint Lucia ladies should to do well at the Caribbean Championships which got underway here on Tuesday.