Sunday December 6, 2015
November 23 - 30, 2015
The National Hopes Week & Challenge concluded this past Monday with over 23 Junior player receiving certificates of participation in the closing ceremonies of the program at the BTTA training facility located at Body 2000 gym on Coney Drive, Belize City.
23 Junior players had the opportunity to work with ITTF High Performance coach Aleksey Yefremov of Belarus for one week leading up to the National Hopes Challenge Tournament staged at the Belize Elementary Auditorium on Saturday November 26.
The National Hopes Challenge is a part of a wider ITTF initiative which seeks to identify the world’s top Under 12 cadet players as well as to work with local coaches to improve their skill level. Each participating country is responsible to set up a National Hopes week to identify their best Under 12 cadet players. These players then go on to a Continental Hopes Challenge Week, and the winners at that event move unto to the World Hopes Challenge Week.
The training camp began on November 21 at the Body 2000 training facility with two sessions, each catering for a different age group. The Under 12 cadets trained each day from 4-6pm while the under 15 cadets trained from 6-8pm. Expert, Aleksey Yefremov prepared different activities each day tailored to improving the players technical abilities and overall tactical game. Additionally, in the mornings in a separate session, Aleksey Yefremov worked along with local coaches to improve their knowledge of the sport and their technical ability.
After one week of intense training, the Hopes week culminated in the staging of the the Hopes week Challenge Tournament at the Belize Elementary Auditorium. Here, Taye Parkinsons (10), and Jude Castellanos (11) came out on top after making it past the qualifying round and working their way to the finals of a single knockout draw.
Twelve Under 12 cadets participated in the tournament. They were placed into two groups where the top two seeds from each group would advance to the main draw. The third and fourth ranked cadet players from each group would then move onto the consolation draw. Taye Parkinson and Jared Mena made it out as the top two performers in group 1. Jude Castellanos and Aidan Arnold made it out of group two as the two top performers. Devesh Hukmani and Carlos Izaguirre made it out of group 1 as 3 and 4, as did Jofny Paguaga and Ethan Hunt out of group 2.
In the main draw Taye Parkinson played against Aidan Arnold in the first semifinals whilst Jude Castellanos and Jared Mena fought for their place in the finals in the second semifinals match. Taye Parkinson defeated Aidan Arnold 3-0 and advanced to the finals. In the second semifinals Jude Castellanos defeated Jared Mena 3 -1. In the final game of the main draw Taye Parkinson played Jude Castellanos and went on to win the Hopes Challenge by defeated him 3-0.
In the Consolation draw Devesh Hukmani battled against Ethan Hunt in the first semi, while Carlos Izaguirre and Jofny Paguaga played in the second. After an intense semis, left hander, Devesh Humani prevailed over Ethan Hunt 3-2, while Jofny Paguaga won Carlos Izaguirre 3-0. In the finals of the Consolation draw Devesh Hukmani overcame Jofny Paguaga with a score of 3-1.
At the end of the event medals were presented to all winners of the main draw by ITTF High Performance Coach Aleksey Yefremov, and he explained what road lay ahead for the top two cadets who made it out of this week’s challenge. Taye Parkinson and Jude Castellanos will go on to represent Belize in the Continental Hopes in hopes of making it to the World Hopes Week. The association thanked Aleksey Yefremov for his hard work and the ITTF for their Initiative at developing the sport of table tennis in countries like Belize and all over the world. His coming here was a great opportunity for our growing association and for all the local players and coaches that got to work with him. We plan on making best use of these opportunities as we work hard to keep moving forward and developing the sport locally here in Belize.
The Development Continues….
EDITOR
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Sunday June 28, 2015
The 2015 7th Annual Barrow & Williams LLP SUMMER OPEN TOURNAMENT concluded this past Sunday, June 28, 2015 at the BES Auditorium.
The event consisted of 3 Categories comprising of an Open Category, 18Under and a Women Category.
In the end the winners were as follows:
1st Place - Zhi Chen
2nd Place – Carlos Cui
3rd Place – Latrell Solis (14 years old)
4th Place – Tux Vasquez
<<< CLICK IMAGE FOR MORE PHOTOS
1st Place – Petie Matus
2nd Place – Su Sen
3rd Place – Kayla Arnold
4th Place – Kelly Liu
<<< CLICK IMAGE FOR MORE PHOTOS
1st Place – Amiri Hoare
2nd Place – Taye Parkinson
3rd Place – Luis Bardales
4th Place – Jaylen Nicholson
<<< CLICK IMAGE FOR MORE PHOTOS
Trophies were awarded to all top finishers, and were presented by BTTA Membership Director, Mrs. Janine Carballo along with BTTA President Tux Vasquez.
Annual Sponsors for this event was Barrow & Williams LLP who continues to provide support for the development of table tennis and this event in particular.
Special mention goes out to Latrell Solis who managed to place third in this year’s Open category. Junior player Latrell Solis (14yrs old) has been rapidly improving as he has repeatedly shown that he can compete at the highest levels of the game in Belize, placing third in this event and 1st just a few weeks ago in the B category of our 2nd Biannual RF&G National Ranking event.
CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners and THANK YOU to the Sponsors, participants, spectators and organizers of this successful event.
Also, a big thank you goes out to Mr. Su Hao Bo, who donated all the drinks for the event. Giving the spectators the opportunity to rightly predict the results of the finals in exchange for beverages of their choice surely made the finals a lot more interesting. Thanks, Mr. Su!!!
"the development continues......!!!".
EDITOR
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Sunday May 31, 2014
The 2015 2nd Bi-Annual RF&G NATIONAL RANKING TOURNAMENT was played this past weekend at the BES Auditorium.
With some 50 plus participants and playing in four different categories, the event started early Sunday morning with the ROUND ROBIN Elimination rounds for all four Divisions.
After the round robin qualifiers wrapped up games continued into the afternoon with top performers in each group advancing to the DOUBLE ELIMINATION DRAW in all categories.
In the A Division, after some intense matches the day closed off with an exciting finals that went down to the wire between Carlos Cui and Tyrone Tun. Carlos Cui won 3-2 just managing to edge out Tyrone in the finals set 13-11.
The final results were as follows.
A - Division
1st – Carlos Cui
2nd – Tyrone Tun
3rd – Nicholas Martin
(click for Final Results.....)
In the B Division, 10 players started out in the Round Robin Elimination groups with the top 8 advancing to the Double Elimination Finals.
This time around #1 ranked Junior Player, Latrell Solis, played his first RF&G Ranking Tournament as an official member of the B Division Category. He joined the ranks of top B Division players like Sen Sen; 2015 1st Biannual RF&G Ranking Tournament Finalist; Hector Lopez, last year’s Finalist, Nicholas Martin, #1 seed coming into this event, and others. After some impressive play from players in this division, Latrell Solis made his way undefeated to the finals. Nicholas Martin fell to Latrell Solis in the top-half Semi-finals and had to make his way back to the finals from the bottom beating out Hector Lopez who got 3rd place, and who had beaten Yasser Musa who managed 4thplace. In the finals we saw young blood versus experience, with this time around youth managing to just edge out with a score of 3-2 in favor of Latrell Solis.
The final results were as follows:
1st – Latrell Solis
2nd – Nicholas Martin
3rd – Hector Lopez
4th – Yasser Musa
(click for Final Results.....)
The C Division saw the largest group of players with some 30+ players taking part. This category proved to be the most competitive with many of the younger developing players proving to be advancing in their talent.
John Delcid from Nazarene High School took the top position falling only once in the finals against Jaylen Nicholson of EP Yorke who would have had to beat John Delcid twice in the finals to claim the top spot. Amiri Hoare of SJC took third and Leo Carballo took fourth. It’s impressive to note that of the top four players in this division, three are junior players. Our junior players are making great headway to the top of the game.
The final results were as follows.
1st – John Delcid
2nd – Jaylen Nicholson
3rd – Amiri Hoare
4th – Leo Carballo
(click for Final Results.....)
The Women Division saw only 4 entries including our number 1 ranked player of the women division, Petie Matus. #2 seed, Su Sen, was determined as ever to come in and vie for the top spot. This time around we also saw our youngest female participant Kelly Liu, who is only 12 and is currently attending Belize Elementary School. Esperanza Leal rounded off the list of participants.
Petie Matus advanced undefeated to the finals where she played Su Sen for the top spot. Petie Matus won convincingly with a score of 3-0. Kelly Liu had beaten Leal 3-0 in the quarters, but fell to Su Sen in the semis leaving Kelly with 3rd place and Esperanza with 4th.
The final results were as follows.
1st – Petie Matus
2nd – Su Sen
3rd – Kelly Liu
4th – Esperanza Leal
(click for Final Results.....)
Trophies were awarded to all the winners by the sponsors, RF&G Insurance Marketing Coordinator Ms. Sonia Tun. She thanked the BTTA for the opportunity to sponsor such a large event; one that included many junior players, as well as senior and women players. RF&G is one of the original sponsors of the BTTA with this being their 6th years of sponsoring this event, and promising to continue in 2016.
BTTA Membership Director, Mrs. Janine Carballo assisted with the trophies presentation.
BTTA Director Hector Lopez, thanked the Sponsors, RF&G for their continued support of the event, the players, organizers, and spectators for a very successful tournament.
"the development continues......!!!"
EDITOR
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Sunday April 26, 2015
The 2015 – 5th Annual 5BARREL Veteran Championships took place this past Sunday, April 26, 2015, at the Belize Elementary School Auditorium.
The tournament started off with the top 16 Veteran Table Tennis players (35 years and over) competing for this title in a 16-Double Elimination Competition format.
Defending Champion Zhi Cheng and last year’s finalist Carlos Cui were among the veteran players in this competition.
Zhi Cheng made it to the finals in the upper division by defeating SP Chen, Hector Lopez, and Carlos Cui.
Tux Vasquez made his run to the finals by defeating Toni Liu and Harold Young, then after losing to Carlos Cui, worked his way back to the finals by defeating Siu Pan Chen, Hector Lopez and Carlos Cui who retired from the competition due to leg injury. Carlos Cui placed Third as a result. Hector Lopez placing fourth.
This left a Zhi Cheng vs Tux Vasquez finals. Zhi Cheng, as the defending champion for this event, went into the finals determined to overcome Tux Vasquez who had beat him in their last meeting in the 2015 RF&G 1st Biannual National Ranking Tournament. Tux Vasquez was hoping to pull off a win once again. Unfortunately for Tux, Cheng managed to win 3-1 in the finals.
The finals results were as follows:
2nd – Tux Vasquez
3rd - Carlos Cui
4th – Hector Lopez
(click image to see more photos>>>>>
Travellers Liquors were once again the Proud Sponsors of this year’s 5th Annual event. Travelers Liquor's representative, Mr. Jordan Ramclam, congratulated the Association on the successful event and stated that they are proud to be a part of the table tennis movement here in Belize. He then awarded trophies to all winners with the assistance of our membership director, Mrs. Janine Carballo.
A big Thank You.... goes out to the Sponsors, Travelers Liquors, players, spectators and organizers of this year’s event.
"the development continues.....!!
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PRESS RELEASE
EDITOR
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Friday, March 27 2015
The 2015 4th Annual DUTCH LADY Primary School Table Tennis Tournament took place this past Friday, March 27, 2015 at the BES Auditorium.
This year 90 students participated from 8 of our local primary schools. These included St. Joseph, Trinity Methodist, St. Mary’s, Hummingbird, Belize Elementary, Wesley Upper Primary, Ephesus, and Holy Redeemer.
This year was also the first year that the primary school tournament has included a Girls Division with 18 girls from 4 different primary schools participating. These schools included Belize Elementary, St. Mary’s, St. Joseph, and Hummingbird.
The format for this year’s tournament was a Round Robin, where the number one player from each group would advance to a Main Double Elimination Draw, and the number two player from each group would advance to a Single Knockout Consolation Draw. This format was used for both the Boys and Girls Divisions.
The competition kicked off at 9am with the opening ceremonies led by BTTA president Arturo Vasquez and the national anthem played by Carlos Cui, one of our very own top ranked players, and his family. Ariel Guerrero, our tournament referee, briefly explained the tournament ground rules and matches commenced shortly after.
Over 200 matches were played throughout the event.
In the Boys Division 24 juniors advanced to the Main Double Elimination Draw. These included top ranked juniors Terry Su, Sergio Pech, Rohit Pagarani, and Eric Li from Belize Elementary; Taye Parkinson, Bjarne Gabourel, Kevin Pelayo, Tarique Reyes, and Jayden Sutherland from St. Joseph; David Portillo from Ephesus; Samron Pott from Hummingbird; and Jose Castellanos from Trinity Methodist.
Top seed junior player Bjarne Gabourel from St. Joseph made it to the finals by defeating David Portillo (2–0), Eric Li (2-1), Samron Pott (2-1), and Taye Parkinson (3-1).
Taye Parkinson, also from St. Joseph, made it to the finals by defeating Jose Castellanos (2-0), Jeran Perez (2-0), Jonah Chebat (2-0), and Sergio Pech (2-0). He lost to Bjarne Gabourel in the Winner’s Bracket Semifinals and fell into the loser’s bracket, but made his way back to the finals by defeating Samron Pott (3-1). The finals was an All St. Joseph affair with Bjarne Gabourel emerging victorious after an impressive match of offense over defence. Taye Parkinson who is well known for his aggressive style was forced into playing a more controlled defensive game as he tried to keep up with Bjarne’s relentless attacks. Bjarne took the match 3 games to 2.
Samron Pott from Hummingbird and Terry Su from Belize Elementary played for third and fourth with Samron Pott winning over Terry (2-1). This was an emotional match for Samron Pott as he’s fallen to Terry Su quite a few times in past tournaments. The win definitely meant a great deal to him as was clearly shown in his celebration after closing the match.
In the Boys Consolation Draw newcomer Anthony Usher of Holy Redeemer made an impressive run to the finals blazing through the bottom half of the draw beating out Jose Mendez of St. Joseph (2-0), Brendan Bouloy of Belize Elementary (2-0), and Edward Matus of St. Joseph (2-1). In the top half of the draw Vinay Hotchandani of Belize Elementary managed to reach the finals by deafeating David Thurton of St. Joseph (2-1), Ethan Dawson of Belize Elementary (2-1), and Johun Reyes (2-0) also of Belize Elementary. The finals was a Holy Redeemer and Belize Elementary match-up with Belize Elementary taking the Boys Consolation - Vinay Hotchandani winning over Anthony Usher 3 games to 1.
In the Girls Division, 6 juniors made it to the Main Double Elimination Draw. These were Allika Forman of St. Mary’s, Jazira Butler and Jennifer Barientos of St. Joseph, Abigail Thurton and Aejelee Thurton of Hummingbird and Kelly Liu of Belize Elementary.
Allika Forman made her way to the finals by defeating St. Joseph’s Jazira Butler (2-0), falling to the loser’s bracket at the hands of Belize Elementary’s Kelly Liu (0-2), only to return back to the finals after defeating Jazira Butler yet again in the loser’s bracket semifinals. Kelly Liu advanced to the finals with a Bye in the first round, then by beating Aejelee Thurton of Hummingbird (2-0), and then Allika Forman (2-0) in the Winner’s Bracket Semis. Kelly then waited in the finals for Allika Forman who had made her way back to the finals and won over Allika Forman 3 games to 1.
6 Juniors also made it into the Girls Consolation Knockout Draw. Afeni Lamb and Brianna Bennit both of St. Joseph Primary, Nina Azueta and Haily Thurton of Hummingbird, and Irene Hung and Fiona Yang of Belize Elementary all made it out of their respective groups. Afeni Lamb of St. Joseph won the Girls Consolation beating out Fiona Yang of BES (2-0), and Irene Hung also of BES 2 game to 0.
The final results of all Divisions were as follows:
Boys Division
1st – Bjarne Gabourel - St. Joseph Primary School
2nd – Taye Parkinson - St. Joseph Primary School
3rd – Samron Pott - Hummingbird Primary School
4th – Terry Su - Belize Elementary Primary School
Boys Consolation
1st – Vinay Hotchandani – Belize Elementary Primary School
2nd – Anthony Usher – Holy Redeemer Primary School
3rd – Edward Matus – St. Joseph Primary School
3rd – Johun Reyes - Belize Elementary Primary School
Girls Division
1st – Kelly Liu – Belize Elementary Primary School
2nd – Allika Forman - St. Mary’s Primary School
3rd – Jazira Butler – St. Joseph Primary School
4th – Aejelee Thurton - Hummingbird Primary School
Girls Consolation
1st – Afeni Lamb – St. Joseph Primary School
2nd – Irene Hung – Belize Elementary Primary School
3rd – Fiona Yang – Belize Elementary Primary School
3rd – Hailey Thurton – Hummingbird Primary School
Last Year’s Primary School Tournament was an all St. Joseph affair with all places 1st to 4th going to St. Joseph Primary. This year, as the results show, more schools are sharing the top positions. This is a testament of the development of the individual table tennis programs in each of the schools. We hope to continue with our school development initiative assuring that it remains competitive.
Mrs. Aisha Rudon representing the SPONSORS Santiago Castillo's DUTCH LADY was on hand to present the trophies and gift packages to the winners of this event.
Mrs. Rudon thanked the BTTA for the opportunity to be a part of the development of table tennis, and to be the proud sponsors of this annual event where Primary Schools junior players are given this opportunity to showcase their talent and love for their sport of table tennis.
BTTA President also gave thanks to the SPONSORS for their continued support and welcomed their continued support of this event.
Trophies were awarded to the top four finalists of the Main Draws for both Boys and Girls Divisions, and medals were presented to the top performer in both Consolation Draws. Gift packages of products from DUTCH LADY were also presented to all winners in each division.
This year the Championship Cup was reclaimed by St. Joseph Primary who won the Cup last year as Bjarne Gabourel of St. Joseph was the overall Winner in the Boys Division.
This makes for St. Joseph’s second win. If they manage to win for a third year in a row they get to keep the cup. For now St. Joseph gets to hold on to this Cup until next year’s event.
We thank all the players, participating schools, parents, spectators, organizers and especially the SPONSORS DUTCH LADY for another successful Primary School event. The increase in number of students participating this year and the overall level of competitiveness observed over the event proves that table tennis is growing in our junior segment and that much more can be expected as we continue to move forward.
CONGRATULATIONS & THANK YOU!!!!
For pictures of the event check out our Facebook page here
https://www.facebook.com/
Make sure to add us on Facebook so you can always be updated on what's happening in table tennis in Belize and make sure to check out our website at http://www.belizetabletennis.
"The Development Continues.....!!"
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January 21 - 24, 2015
Belize was represented in the Central American U15 & U18 Table Tennis Championships held in El Salvador from January 21st to the 24th, 2015. Three junior players from the Belize Table Tennis Association (BTTA), namely John Delcid, Latrell Solis, and Jaylen Nicholson participated in three categories at the event; Team, Singles, and Doubles. All played in the U15 category.
The tournament kicked off with the Team Event on the first day with round robin matches. The 8 participating countries were placed into two Groups. Group 1 included El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Panama. Belize was in Group 2 along with Honduras, Costa Rica, and Mexico. Belize played Honduras in the first match and managed to win 3-0. Belize then played Costa Rica but lost 0-3. Our matches were very close, however, almost all being played to the fifth set. We played Mexico last and lost 0-3. These were very tough matches as Mexico's experience and skill level is unmatched in our region. It was great experience for our young players.
John Delcid and Latrell Solis also played in the doubles event. This event utilized a straight knockout format. We played against Honduras in our first match. We lost 2-3, 9-11 in the last set after being down 5 points at 4-9. This match was extremely close, but the more experienced Honduras took the match in the end.
On the third day the singles event kicked off. Each junior was placed in separate groups. Latrell Solis was placed in a group of 4 which included Honduras, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. Jaylen Nicholson was in a group of 3 which included Mexico and Guatemala. John Delcid was placed in a group of 3 as well which included Honduras and Nicaragua. Latrell Solis and Jaylen Nicholson were unable to make it out of their tough groups, but John Delcid, who had a slightly less difficult group, was able to make it out with one win over Antione Rivera from Honduras 3-1. John advanced to the main draw.
On the final day, the main draw of the singles event was played. John played his first match against Genaro Roustan from Nicaragua. John lost 1-3, but again games were relatively close, 11-6 or better.
In the end, despite not being able to place top 3 in the event, we feel ecstatic about our juniors' overall performance. Our juniors are playing at regional level and competitively. Our competitors had to bring out their very best games in order to win. We are confident that so long as we continue to work with our juniors we will advance further into the draw the next time we participate regionally.
All three Juniors who represented us in El Salvador are products of our School Development Initiative which we started three years ago and our National Junior Development Program. Their participation and performance in El Salvador shows that we are on the right track towards developing a stronger Belizean Table Tennis.
The BTTA would like to once again thank the Belize Olympic Committee for its support, the junior players and their parents for their dedication and hard work, our Technical Director, Gabriel Guerrero, for preparing the juniors leading up to the event and for working with them as coach during the event, and all others who contributed towards making this event a successful one.
The Development Continues...
EDITOR
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