BELIZE CITY, Wed. Apr. 20, 2016–The 2016 – 4th Annual Don Omario’s Top 32-18Under Cup took place on Saturday, April 16, at the BES Auditorium, ”the home of table tennis”.
The Top 32 best 18Under junior players started out in a double-elimination format event, with defending Champion and #1 ranked junior, Latrell Solis; 2015 Junior Player of the Year, Taye Parkinson; and 2016 Primary School Finalist, Terry Su all included in the list of participants…
Latrell Solis managed to make it to the quarter finals of the loser’s bracket by defeating Denzel Young (3-0) and Devesh Hukmani (3-2), before falling to Taye Parkinson in the winner’s bracket (0-3), sending him down to the loser’s bracket where he played Kevin Chen, winning, 3-2. His next match would be Rohit Pagarani, where he’d try to continue to make his run to the finals. Unfortunately for him, Rohit Pagarani managed to pull off the win, beating Solis 3 games to 1, putting Solis in fourth place for this year’s event.
Taye Parkinson made an impressive run this tournament, being the youngest of the finalists at only 10 years old. Taye is #1 in the 12 and Under age division, but he has consistently shown to be competitive, even in the older age divisions, having recently placed third in the “A” Division of the 2016 1st Biannual RF&G National Ranking Tournament just a week prior to this event. With the confidence from this win, he managed to reach the finals, defeating Daryl Palacio (3-2), Luis Bardalez (3-1), Latrell Solis (3-0), and Amiri Hoare (3-0).
#2 seed Amiri Hoare made his way to the finals with wins over Kevin Chen (3-2), Joshua Gegg (3-1) and Desire Amagwula (3-0) in the winner’s bracket. He lost to Taye Parkinson, 2-3, forcing him into the losers’ bracket, where he managed to work his way back into the finals by defeating Rohit Pagarani, 3-2. In the finals, he met Taye Parkinson yet again. To win the title, he would need to overcome Taye Parkinson two times. Taye Parkinson and Amiri Hoare battled it out in the finals, showcasing excellent play from both sides. Taye Parkinson immediately came out with aggressive attacks, winning the first two games. Amiri, in response to Taye’s game plan, decided to put some pressure of his own on to Taye by upping his game, becoming more aggressive. This paid off tremendously, as Taye began with several unforced errors, the added pressure clearly getting to him. In the fifth game, Amiri could see the finish line with him at 8-4 over Taye Parkinson, but as the pressure began to build up, Taye seemed to be the lesser affected. Taye slowly made his way back into the game, and eventually pulled off the win 12-10 in the final game of the match.
4th Annual Don Omario’s Top 32 18Under Cup
The final results were as follows: 1st – Taye Parkinson; 2nd – Amiri Hoare; 3rd – Rohit Pagarani; 4th – Latrell Solis.
Trophies and the Championship Cup were presented to the winners on behalf of the sponsors, “Travellers,” by BTTA President Tux Vasquez.
Congratulations to the winners, and a special Thank You to the sponsors, “Travellers,” for their continued sponsorship and support in the development of table tennis in the junior players.
Thank You also goes out to all the players, parents, spectators and organizers of this event.
“the development continues……!!”