KC, Glenmuir, Belair, Ardenne win all-island titles

Urban and rural high schools evenly shared honours, as the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association all-island table tennis competition climaxed with four finals at Manchester High on Monday.

The Corporate Area's Kingston College (KC) and Clarendon's Glenmuir High retained the respective boys and girls Under-19 titles, while Manchester's Belair won the boys Under-16 crown and Ardenne High from St Andrew copped the girls Under-16 trophy.

With the urban champions facing rural champions for the all-island crowns, KC drubbed Cross Keys 4-1; Glenmuir, coached by Carlton Clarke, blanked Campion College 3-0; Belair stunned Campion 5-0; and Ardenne, whose players are coached by former many-time national champion Sandra Riettie, blanked DeCarteret College 3-0.

By virtue of their victory, the Colin McNeish-coached KC have now won the Under-19 championship 10 times since 1997.

Glenmuir's girls also established some degree of dominance with Monday's Under-19 title, as they have now won it six out of the last nine occasions.

Play in the Under-16 category only started in 2008 and both Belair's boys, who are coached by Patrick Clarke, and Ardenne's girls teams, were registering their first all-island success.

In the boys' Under-19 play-offs, Jordan Hazle, Glen-Ross McDonald and Jermaine James overpowered Nashawn McFarlane, Hushane Langley and Goff Gayle, respectively, by similar 3-0 scores, while Korey Moulton turned back Nemoy Wellington 3-1, for KC's four victories.

Cross Keys earned their consolation win from Rushane Langley (Hushane's twin), who outplayed Lance White 3-1.

In the girls' Under-19 championship, Christal Campbell stopped Kristen McKenzie 3-1, Jaquille Jones eased past Janique Lee 3-0 and Christa-Gaye Kerr overwhelmed Shaunte Smith 3-0, to seal Glenmuir's triumph.

In Belair's 5-0 whitewash over Campion in boys' Under-16 meeting, Matheiu Duval got by Peter-John Goldson 3-1, Alexander Chin edged Romario Tulloch 3-2, Rij Findlay overpowered Simon Ho-On 3-0, Brandon James clipped Derek Walcott 3-2 and Samuel Ricketts defeated Vincent Zhong 3-1.

On the way to securing top honours in the girls' Under-16 title showdown, Ashli Alexander eased past Anique Cain 3-0, Kerry-Ann Whyte cruised past Monique Cain (Anique's twin) 3-0 and Toni-Ann Tapper overwhelmed Jahmalla Salmon 3-0.

The presentations of trophies were made by ISSA's director for table tennis, Richard Thompson, principal of Titchfield High School.