Brazil and Chile emerged as the respective Men’s and Women’s Team
champions at the Latin American Championships in San Salvador on Monday
23rd March 2009; at the final hurdle, Brazil overcame arch rivals
Argentina, whilst Chile defeated Colombia.
Both teams had
started as favourites to contest the gold medal duels with the
Brazilian squad of Hugo Hoyama, Cazuo Matsumoto, Eric Mancini and Paolo
Rocha occupying the top seeded place, whilst the Chileans, Berta
Rodriguez, Paulina Vega, Natalia Castellano and Blanca Duran, were
seeded two.
Quarter-Finals Negotiated
The
qualification group stage negotiated successfully, Brazil overcame
Ecuador in the quarter-finals by three matches to one with the one
contest to go astray being the defeat of Eric Mancini by Geovanny
Coello.
Furthermore, the contest nearly went the full five match
distance with Hugo Hoyama only beating Alberto Miño by the skin of his
teeth. The two further wins for Brazil came from Cazuo Matsumoto
against Alberto Miño and in the doubles where Hugo Hoyama and Eric
Mancini proved far too strong for Geovanny Coello and Dino Suarez.
No Charity
A
place in the semi-finals booked, the same Brazilian trio lined up
against the Colombians Mauricio Rivera, Juan Restrepo and Alexander
Echavarria; in no mood for charity the Brazils recorded an impressive
three matches to nil victory with no contest going the full five games
distance.
Final
However,
the final was a much tougher affair and it could have gone in favour of
Argentina just as easily as it went in favour of Brazil. The first
three matches all went the full five games distance.
Hugo Hoyama
overcame Gaston Alto, Cazuo Matsumoto accounted for Pablo Tabachnik
whilst for Argentina, Gaston Alto and Diego Temperley joined forces to
beat Hugo Hoyama and Eric Mancini.
Alas for Argentina there was
to be no incredible recovery, Cazuo Matsumoto beat Diego Temperley in
straight games to bring matters to an abrupt conclusion.
Women’s Team Event
Success
for Brazil and success for Chile in the Women’s Team event with
semi-final victories recorded over Puerto Rico’s Jerica Marrero, Lyanne
Aponte and Glorianny Baba by three matches to one, before a three-two
victory was posted over Colombia’s Paula Medina, Aura Ocampo and Luisa
Zuluaga.
At the semi-final stage Colombia had beaten top seeds
Brazil represented by the squad of Jessica Yamada, Ligia Silva, Mariany
Nonaka and Carina Murashige.
Source: www.ittf.com
