Saint Lucia’s National Under13 Table-Tennis team recently created history – to become the first team from the sub-region to win a Caribbean table tennis championship title.
Last weekend, Team Saint Lucia defied some strong opposition to secure the 2022 Caribbean Mini Pre Cadet-Table Tennis Championships title, played in Guyana.Team 758 emerged as the first island from the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) to accomplish such a feat.
Saint Lucia entered the tournament ranked as the 6th seed and put on a tough and impressive performance on the way to winning the title.
In their first match St. Lucia faced Trinidad & Tobago’s A team, which was seeded as the number #1 team in the tournament. Team 758 beat T& T 3-2 in a tough encounter, led by the outstanding play of young Leshon Francis and the doubles team.
Saint Lucia took on Guyana B team in the next match, and an excellent all-round team performance enabled them to overpower their opponents 3-0. This victory propelled Saint Lucia to the #1seed, and a bye into the semi-finals.
Saint Lucia Boys took on T&T’s B team in the semis, and sent out a strong signal with a thumping 3-0 win to advance to the finals.
In the final matchup, playing before a vociferous bunch of home fans, Team Saint Lucia came up against hosts – Guyana.
Leshon Francis played unbeaten for Team 758 by winning his two matches. His team mate Manie Ee–Loo-Frair, however, had to dig in much deeper to offset the challenge that he eventually overcame with a smashing 3-0 victory.
Despite losing the doubles, Team Saint Lucia went on to defeat Guyana 3 – 2 to win the trophy.
Team Coach Chris Wells said, a lot of effort went into thorough training and preparations to enable Team Saint Lucia to secure victory.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Leshon Francis gave Team 758 more reasons to cheer when he won the Under-11 title at the Cadet Championships, in Guyana, by defeating his Guyanese opponent 3-0.