Table tennis on the mend after hard road back
Published:Tuesday | January 4, 2022 | 12:07 AMHubert Lawrence/Gleaner Writer
A PROLONGED leadership battle had put table tennis in the headlines well before the COVID-19 epidemic struck. It was resolved after the virus had started to ravage the island, and when it was over, new Jamaica Table Tennis Association president Andrew Lue had a full menu of work ahead of him and his team. The first serve was to bring the National Championships back to the table after an absence in 2020.
Lue became the top man in the sport in February 2021 when the embattled former president, Godfrey Lothian, finally exited. Attention turned to restarting the sport at the Nationals. In the end, the association’s bid for approval to stage the event was granted but with stringent protocols. No spectators were allowed, and all players and officials had to pass COVID-19 tests before their participation could be approved.
“Thankfully,” Lue recalled. “The SDF stepped in and sponsored the testing.”
Among the champions when the event finally happened in August, was Simon Tomlinson, who captured his fifth national men’s singles title. A year earlier, Tomlinson and his training partner, Kane Watson, had slipped back into Jamaica after a sojourn in Europe just before travel regulations tightened.
Those tribulations made Tomlinson’s victory over the experienced Peter Moo Young even sweeter. “Yes,” Tomlinson confirmed. “This was definitely one of the hardest ones to win after everything that’s been going on in the world, but I mean as athletes, we train ourselves to persevere and get through the difficult moments, so I’m very happy to win, especially under all these conditions. One of Tomlinson’s young protégés, Solesha Young, won the women’s singles.
For Lue, the battle was worth the struggle. “The most satisfying thing was seeing the performance of the junior athletes, outstanding performance for the now five-time champion Simon Tomlinson and triple crown winner Solesha Young,” he said.
The Nationals left Lue optimistic about the future.
“I realised there are a lot of challenges out there but there’s a lot of goodwill for table tennis, and with that in mind, I think that there’s nothing we can’t achieve if we put our minds to it,” he resolved.
There were no other official tournaments played in Jamaica for 2021, but Jamaica did field a team to the Pan-American Youth Games in September, but with preparation sparse, the results were modest. In addition, 11 year-old Kiara White participated in the Hopes Programme staged by the International Table Tennis Federation.
“Unfortunately, because of COVID this year, it was not possible for us to travel, so we had to do online classes,” recalled her coach, Richard Davidson.
The year ended on a bright note for table tennis as Tsenaye Lewis, the national under-15 champion, won two titles at a tournament in Florida, December 10-12. Lewis took the under-1350 and 1150-point rating sections, winning 22 of the 29 matches she played at the Carmel Barrau Open, hosted by the Broward Table Tennis Club. She was third in the under-1800 section.