There seems to be no stopping Nigel Bryan. Twenty four hours after receiving his joint Junior Sportsman-of-the-Year award, Bryan played his way to the winning prize of $300,000 by capturing the Guyana Table Tennis Association’s (GTTA) Top 16 tournament at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall Saturday night.
Bryan blasted out of the blocks in the final against Joel Alleyne using his superior hand speed and quickness to great effect to pull ahead 3-0 (11-7, 11-5, 16-14) in the best of seven series.
With encouraging chants for Alleyne from the fair-sized crowd in attendance, Alleyne battled back to make the final interesting as he exploited Bryan’s evident weak backhand stroke to bring the game to 3-2, winning the next two sets at 7 and 6 respectively.
However, Bryan showed why he is the current national Men’s singles champion.
He mixed his superior foot speed with spinny shots which allowed him to recover and effectively use his forehand loop to great effect interspersed with the occasional backhand shot as he ensured that the game would not go to a seventh and final set, ending the game in six sets at 11-9.
“I feel much stronger as a player and happy about this win. My game is not complete as yet but I’m working to get it there,” the 19-year-old told Stabroek Sport.
Bryan also chose to answer some of his critics who has the view that his backhand shot is weak.
“Well, I use my backhand shot mostly to control the ball and basically use my forehand for attacking,” Bryan stated confidently.
Alleyne walked off with $200,000 for his second place effort in the high paying tournament.
Meanwhile, veteran Colin France produced a stellar performance as he turned back the hands of time to defeat the much younger overseas-based Rondell Jordan in four straight sets.
France, whose game chopping game revolves around the use of his anti-spin rubber with the occasional slam, was at the peak of his game during the match-up as Jordan was out-hustled in the four sets which ended 13-11, 11-4, 11-8 and 11-9.
The men’s Top 16 tournament saw two-time national men’s singles champion and current GTTA General Secretary Godfrey Munroe, former Caribbean Junior Boys champion Idi Lewis and national player Christopher Franklyn not being invited to participate in the open men’s singles competition.
In the Women’s super six tournament Trenace Lowe was unstoppable as she defeated all her opponents to walk away with the $200,000 prize at the end of the night.
Lowe seemed in the zone during her play in the round-robin competition as she showed her usual aggressive and focused nature in playing all her opponents.
Chelsea Edghill was second to take home $100,000 while Jody-Ann Blake was good enough for the third place prize money of $75,000.
Earlier in the day, France won a tough final match-up against Raynor Anderson that finished 3-2 at 8-11, 11-3, 11-4, 8-11 and 11-4 in the Master’s over-50 title.
Garfield Wiltshire, former national junior champion, returned to his first love to claim the Master’s 40-50 category when he defeated Remy Taitt in four sets at 12-10, 12-10, 11-8 and 11-7.
Elishaba Johnson played brilliantly to come out the winner of the $100,000 cash prize when he won the Pee Wee under 13 title.
