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Archive - Archive 2004 - July 2013

Table Tennis: Monthly Challenge competition |27 May 2005

Esparon, loser to Maria Laure in the ladies’ singles Curtain-raiser final, defeated Margaret Chang-Time 4-1 in the decisive match of the ladies division one league for a successful start to the defence of her own title of the Monthly Challenge competition.

She finished with five wins, compared to runner-up Chang-Time’s four in the six-player league.
Last year, it is to note, Esparon won her first Monthly Challenge in March and followed it with four more victories in July, September, October and November.

Like Esparon, Sultan made a good start with a 4-1 (14-12 11-9 7-11 11-8 11-8) win over Vincent Isaac in the men division one final.

The men’s singles competition was played in two groups and the top two in each pool qualified for the semifinals.

Men’s singles Curtain-raiser title holder Sultan won the March, April, May, July, August and November editions of the Monthly Challenge last year.

In the mixed doubles final, Isaac and Esparon teamed up to beat Sultan and young Anissa Benstrong 3-0 (11-8 11-9 12-10).
In the girls’ under 12 age group, Marline Moncherry got five wins to take first place. She was followed in second position by Rubby Arrisol.

Damien Joseph dominated the boys’ under 12 category with Graham Moncherry taking second place.
Hazel Robert won all her three matches of the girls’ under 16 years old four-player league to relegate Bernadette Marie into second position.

Daniel Payet whitewashed Aleg Almaze 4-0 (11-9 11-8 11-7 11-7) in the boys’ under 16 final.

Meanwhile, Seychelles Table Tennis Association (STTA) chairman Francis Remie has said that he is proud of the significant improvement made by Seychellois players who participated in the 48th International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Championship sponsored by car company Volkswagen and held in Shanghai, China.

“In four previous participations, Seychellois players did not even win a set and now, they’ve won matches. This is proof that Seychelles table tennis is continuously improving,” said a proud Remie.

Isaac got two wins in group 19 of the men’s singles qualifiers, beating Spanish Javier Nelson Aldhana and Elias Barros Da Silva. His only loss was against Icelander Guomundur Stephensen.

Sultan finished with just one win by walk-over against Algerian Fatah Ourahmoune and then lost to Korean Yong Chol An and Iraqi Abbas Khalaf in group 40 of the qualifiers.

In the women’s singles qualifiers, Esparon, playing in group 13, lost twice to Austrian Martina Petzner and Valeria Zeas of Ecuador. She won by walk-over against Tunisian Roa Korbi.

In the mixed doubles qualifiers, Sultan and Esparon progressed to the next round after walking over the pair of José Luyindula and Litobaka Amma of the Ivory Coast. The Seychelles duo then lost to Louiza Kourea and Andreas Tziambos of Cyprus.

The men’s doubles pair of Sultan and Isaac did not have to break a sweat against the Ghanaian duo of Eric Hammond and Eric Amoah, winning by walk-over before losing to Filipinos Joseph Cruz and Ernesto Ebuen III.

It is worth noting that the three players were accompanied by coach Peter Youpa and STTA chairman Remie who attended the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Congress and participated in the election of a new executive committee.

Chinese players who went into the championship holding four of the five titles won all five this time.

Liqin Wang beat compatriot Ma Lin 4-2 in the men’s singles final and Yining Zhang defeated Yue Guo 4-2 in an all-China ladies’ singles final.

Linghui Kong and Hao Wang joined forces to beat Germans Tim Boll and Christian Suss 4-1 in the men’s doubles final, while Nan Wang and Yining Zhang retained their ladies’ doubles title after a 4-1 victory over another Chinese pair of Yue Guo and Jianfeng Niu.

The mixed doubles was won by Liqin Wang and Yue Guo following a close 4-3 win over Yang Bai and Liu Guozheng also of China.

G. G.

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