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CANADIAN SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS: TEAM MANITOBA RESULTS
The Canadian Table Tennis Championships were contested this past July 22-24 in the Vancouver “suburb” of Richmond British Columbia. Team Manitoba was comprised of- MEN: Craig Pointon, Patrick Serda, Frederick Eng, Terry “Tian” Zhang. WOMEN: Cristina Montoya-Garro, Alexandra Dzioba and Marissa Pointon. The coach was Mr. George Damianov and officials were Mr. Greg Dzioba (Deputy Referee), Mr. Linton Pointon (Umpire) and Mr. Greg Chan (Umpire).
The tournament started out with the INTER-PROVINCIAL TEAM MATCHES. The format was a knockout draw with each match of the format A-X, B-Y, C-Z, A-Y, B-X with each singles tie the best of 5 games to eleven points. As per the norm for the past 4-5 years, Manitoba was represented at the “senior” level by teams that were more or less comprised of “junior” aged players, Craig Pointon being the sole “adult” on our teams.
The Men’s team was seeded sixth and finished sixth dropping matches to Saskatchewan 1-3 and Alberta 0-3. The sole win was garnered by Craig over arch-rival Loren Hung of Regina. The women’s team fared a little bit better finishing in fifth place-which is what they were seeded heading in to the event. They lost 0-3 to Alberta and defeated a young Saskatchewan team 3-1.
SINGLES PLAY-MEN:
Of the four players, only Craig won his preliminary group thus winning the chance to make the Championship Division of play. However, in the second round group he finished 3rd out of 3 and thus dropped back to contest the B Division. Here he battled to the semi-finals with good wins over players from BC and Quebec. He lost to Ontario’s Derek Wong who ended up taking the Division. (Subjective editorial comment: “Good thing Coach Damianov has a good ticker-how surprised he must have been at this performance...imagine how Craig could do if he played more than once a week!…talented!”)
Patrick, Freddie and Terry all ended up playing in the C Division. Patrick reached the round of 16, Terry the ¼ finals and Freddie the semi-finals where he lost to eventual winner Mark Gorse of BC. Along the way Freddie defeated a couple of players >2000 so these wins should garner him some precious ranking points which will be critical for 2007 Canada Winter Games seedings.
SINGLES PLAY-WOMEN:
In preliminary group play all three finished 3rd out of 3. In round two play none of them could muster a group win which meant that all three had to contest the Women’s C Division. Here we kicked butt! Cristina defeated Alexandra in one semi-final in a hard fought 4 games (-9,13,9,9) and in the other semi Marissa lost in straight sets to BC’s Carmen Lee. However, in the final, Cristina took revenge on Marissa’s behalf and won the C Division in straight sets 10, 7 and 7. Well done Cristina!
DOUBLES PLAY:
Manitoba was in tough here! Patrick and Freddie were defeated in the round of 32 and Craig and Terry in the round of 16. Surprise winners were junior players Shen and Chira of Ontario. (Editorial Comment…was it Paulo Chira’s training here in Winnipeg this past spring that brought him to this pinnacle...?…joking of course).
The women fared little better with out two teams meeting in the round of 16. Marissa, teamed with Saskatchewan’s Shelley Chan, defeated Alexandra and Crisitna in 5 games to advance to the ¼’s where they lost to the top seeded pair from BC.
YOUTH UNDER 21 YEARS SINGLES:
In male youth singles play only Craig could advance from the groups-only top 1 advanced. He lost his first knock-out match in the round of 16 in a hard fought 5 game set to BC’s Aron Ng. In the female youth singles event none of our girls advanced; they all finished 2nd out of 3 in their respective groups.
Coach Damianov was not available for an interview at the time of this article…he is away on a well deserved holiday.
Complete results can be found on the CANADIAN TABLE TENNIS ASSOCIATION’S website at www.ctta.ca
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