The team semi-finals and final of this year’s Jamaica Table Tennis Association (JTTA) Prep Schools Table Tennis Competition will be staged today at the YMCA, starting at 8:30 am.

Home-and-away play took place during April and May with 11 teams from nine schools (two schools entered two teams each) taking part. The teams were divided into one group of three and two groups of four, with the top two finishers from each group qualifying for the play-offs.

The six teams will now be divided into two groups of three with round-robin play in each group. Group winners will contest the final, while runners-up will play off for third-place trophies.

Two-time defending champions Hillel #1 team and Portmore Missionary 2 placed first and second in Group One respectively to progress to the semis. Former many-time champions and beaten finalists over the last two years, Portmore Missionary 1 and St Andrew advanced from Group Two, while former many-time champions Sts Peter & Paul and Hillel 2 qualified from Group Three.

The two semi-finalist groups will have Hillel 1, St Andrew and Hillel 2 in Group One, while Group Two will contain Portmore Missionary 1, Sts Peter & Paul and Portmore Missionary 2. Group winners will contest the final and runners-up will play off for third place.

In addition to the team play-offs, there will also be individual events for boys and girls in age groups Under-13 and Under-10. Last year’s Under-13 winners, Pratik Harjani (Hillel) and Kelice Sinclair (Portmore Missionary) are now in high schools, while the Under-10 winners, Jon-Pierre Daley (St Andrew) and Emma Dibbs (Immaculate Prep) now qualify for the Under-13 category.

This is the 19th annual staging of the competition, which was sponsored for the first 16 years by Oliver’s Decorating Company Ltd, in 2011 and 2012 by Quest Security Services Ltd, and is being sponsored this year by the JTTA.