THE Dominican Republic emerged overall champions of the 60th staging of the 2018 Caribbean Region Table Tennis Federation Senior Championships, which ended at National Arena last Friday.

The Spanish-speaking country dominated the championships from the very start and maintained it to win seven titles, the most by any of the participating countries, with Guyana finishing second while Barbados came third in the overall standings.

Hosts Jamaica found the going tough and finished out of the top three positions as they won only three medals — silver in the men’s doubles, and bronze in the over-45 men’s and women’s singles.

Coach of Dominican Republic Frank Arias said with the absence of Cuba and Puerto Rico he was always confident that his country would dominate the championships.

“We have to play with what appears in front of us in the championships, and the players gave good performances throughout and I am very happy to come out as the overall champions.

“Cuba and Puerto Rico would have given us a more competitive and stronger challenge and better performance, as they are two of the best teams in the Caribbean. We came here expecting to make a clean sweep but we failed, however, we are happy for the way the players performed throughout the championships,” Arias added.

The winning coach assessed that Jamaica’s weakness might have been that they came up against a much higher playing level during the championships than what they are accustomed to, but that he had seen some good performances from a few players in the individual events.

“Jamaica has some very good players but they need more training and competition to reach that level like the other Caribbean countries.”

The Dominican Republic completed the championships by winning both the men’s and women’s singles finals on Saturday. No Jamaicans reached the quarter-finals in either the men’s or women’s singles.

There were two outstanding players who captured three gold medals the 28-year-old Emil Santos in the men’s and 19-year-old Yasiris Ortiz in the women’s, both from the Dominican Republic.

Santos captured the men’s singles, men’s doubles, and was a member of the Dominican Republic team which won the team title, while Ortiz won the women’s singles, women’s doubles and was a member of the winning team.

“This is the first time I have won the senior men’s singles title as over the years I have finished either second or third. but I am very happy to be the champion,” Santos said.

He said the toughest was in the semi-finals where it went to seven games against Christopher Franklin of Guyana. “It was really a tough match to have won.”

According to Ortiz“I was a little surprised to achieve this feat but I played her very hard and capitalised on my shots to come out victoriously.

“I should have won the Under-21 women’s title but I was too overconfident coming into the match and was beaten in the semi-finals, which I should have beaten my opponent. I would like to go on and play many more tournaments and also to win more medals,” she said.

Meanwhile, the men’s final played on Saturday was an all-Dominican Republic showdown, with the top seed Santos defeating his second-seed compatriot Samuel Galvez in the best-of-seven games 4-0, with scores of 11-9, 11-9, 12-10, 11-7. It was also the first time Santos was winning the senior men’s singles crown.

The women’s singles final was equally tough for the two Dominican Republic teammates, as Ortiz upset top seed Eva Brito 4-2 with scores of 11-8, 5-11, 13-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-6 to clinch her first senior title.

The semi-finals of the men’s and women’s singles were also played on Saturday. In one of the most exciting matches of the championships, the men’s semi-finals produced some brilliant displays as Santos defeated his compatriot Isaac Vila in a tough seven games 4-3, with scores of 11-4, 12-14, 11-8, 11-6, 7-11, 5-11, 11-6, while Galvez beat Christopher Franklin of Guyana 4-0 with scores of 11-9, 12-10, 11-9, 11-5.

The mixed doubles title was won by the Dominican Republic pair of Vila and Esmerlyn Castro, who defeated the Guyanese pair of Franklin and Trenace Lowe in the final.

Jamaica’s two bronze medals in the over-45 men’s and women’s singles were won by Rudolph Sinclair and Andrea Wadsworth, respectively. Simon Tomlinson and Kane Watson had captured the silver after they were beaten in the men’s doubles final.

The Under-21 men’s singles was won by Shemar Britton from Guyana who beat Tyrese Knight from Barbados in the final, with the women’s Under-21 singles won by Chelsea Edghill from Guyana who defeated Brittany Joseph in the final.