BOTH Trinidad and Tobago teams had to settle for bronze medals after being defeated in the semi-finals of the Caribbean Table Tennis Championships Wednesday night, in Barbados.
The women were beaten 3-0 by Cuba, who were later edged 3-2 by Puerto Rico in their battle for the gold medal.
The Puerto Ricans also denied the Cubans 3-2 in the Men’s final, following a 3-1 triumph over T&T.
Like the women, this country’s men did not win a completed match, but ended up gaining a point when Oscar Birriel defaulted the third to Yuvraaj Dookram.
Brian Afanador, who had gotten the ball rolling by crushing United States-based Derron Douglas 11-2, 11-9, 11-3, came back to take down four-time national champion Aaron Wilson 11-6, 12-10, 11-5 and complete the victory.
Wilson, who has spent the last few months training in Denmark, had lost the second match 13-11, 11-5, 11-9 to Angel Naranjo.
The Cuban women completed the sweep of T&T when Estela Crespo defeated Imani Edwards-Taylor 11-5, 11-13, 11-8, 11-6.
Two-time defending national champ Chloe Fraser was beaten 11-7, 11-4, 11-7 by Daniela Fonseca in the opener, and then five-time Caribbean champ Rheann Chung led 2-1 before being edged 9-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-8, 11-7 by Rosalba Aguiar.
Singles action began yesterday with round-robin groups.
Douglas was beaten 11-4, 11-5, 11-9 by second-ranked Naranjo, but he was expected to beat Barbadian Mark Dowell later and qualify for the main draw.
Two-time defending national Under-19 champ Malik Gopaul was overwhelmed 11-2, 11-4, 11-6 by the tenth-ranked Ramon Vila of Dominican Republic, and he had a tough second and final match against a player from Cuba.
The other member of the T&T contingent of eight is Jordan Thong, who like Fraser and Chung is based in France. The doubles events will get going today and the finals will be contested on Sunday.