SANTO DOMINGO. The United States won three gold medals out of the four possible that were distributed in the team competitions of the U-11 and U-13 Pan American Table Tennis Championships dedicated to President Luis Abinader and held in the Pavilion of that discipline of the East Park.
The Americans were champions in U-11, men and women, as well as in U-13 in women, in addition to winning silver medals in U-11 and U-13 in women, and a third place in U-13 men.
Puerto Rico, in the men’s U-13 category, won the other available gold. The team was made up of Enrique Ríos and Steven Moreno. Colombia obtained the silver, with Juan Garzón and Emanuel Otalvaro, while Ecuador (Ricardo Bernal and Anthony Martínez), as well as Brazil, with Felipe De Melo Okano and Vinidus Rech, shared the bronze.
In U-11, the US Women’s B team of Irene Yeoh and Abigail Yu won gold, while the US A team (Sophia Chen and Tiiana Piyadasa) took silver. The bronze was shared by Guatemala (Varia Guevara and Marta Salazar) and Ecuador A (María Alejandra Abril and Emily Macay).
In female U-11, the Americans Kyler Chen and Jason Liu were crowned monarchs, while the Ecuadorians Joaquín Velez and Boris Nestor Villavicencio were runners-up. Caillou Chen and Arjun Kumar, from the United States, won bronze, as did Peruvians Ludano Medrano and Josue Portalatino.
In U13 women, Amina Batkhuyag and Genelia Willja, from the United States, were the champions, followed by their compatriots Aria Shi and Mandy Yu, while the bronze was shared by the teams from the Dominican Republic (Eduanny de la Cruz, Yesmeily Guerrero and Dafne Sosa), and from Ecuador (Karolayn Maldonado, Naomi Pazmino and Solange Reyes).
The Pan American Championship, which will continue on Friday with the individual and doubles competitions, has the support of the Ministry of Sports, Claro, Creso, Banreservas, Raise, ITTF, OMSA, Super Mercado Central and the Dominican Olympic Committee (COD).
The individual champions in both branches in the U-11 category will obtain the right to participate in the “Hopes” camp (of future stars), while the winners in U-13 will receive training scholarships in Specialized Centers.
