Table Tennis Celebration in Chiriqui
December 3, 2009

Santiago Méndez Jr. - Single Champion R-700

Courtesy of www.cntmpanama.com

During the weekend of October 31st and November 1st 2009, the city of David in the province of Chiriqui, turned into Panama’s Table Tennis main spot due to the realization of two official tournaments. The first tournament for Singles under 700 pts of rating (R-700) and the other an invitational Corbillion Team tournament, both events organized by the Chiriqui Table Tennis Club with the acknowledgement of the Panama Table Tennis National Commision (CNTM).

It was a true Table Tennis celebration, having as venue the excellent facilities of the Chiriqui Table Tennis Club. The competition started on Saturday’s noon with the Singles R-700 event and 32 players coming from the provinces of Colon, Chiriqui and Panama.

Chavales Silvera - Runner-up, Single R-700

In this event the host club kept top grades because in the final match there were two players of the Chiriqui Table Tennis Club, been the young Santiago Méndez Jr. vs Chavales Silvera who battled through out five games, emerging the young Méndez Jr. as the winner with 13-11, 5-11, 11-6, 6-11 and 11-5.

On third places were Raúl Miranda from Chiriqui and Alberto Law from Panama City who were defeated in semifinals by Méndez and Silvera respectively.

On the other hand, the teams event, played under the Corbillion format, gathered teams from the Chiriqui Table Tennis Club, the Raqueta Colonense Club, the Parque Lefevre Club, the Panama Ping Pong Club, the Universidad Interamericana Table Tennis Club and the international guests from the Costa Rica’s national team.

Costa Rican Team - Corbillion event winner

After two days of intense competition, the final trial found the “A” Team of the Chiriqui Table Tennis Club, formed by Justo Altamiranda, current No. 1 in the national ranking, and the Guatemalan Lester Sanjay, who faced Allan Calvo and Steve Herra from the Costa Rica’s National Team. At the end the Costa Rican emerged as the winner beating their opponent 3 matches to 1, with Allan Calvo clinching two points out of Altamiranda and Sanjay by 3-1 and 3-0 respectively, while his partner won one point out of Lester Sanjay 3 games to 1. The team from Chiriqui only took one point out of the double match beating the Costa Rican 3-2 games.

Chavales Silvera awards the winning team

Third places in the team event were to Panama Ping Pong (David Ariza and David Lay) and the “B” Team of the Chiriqui Table Tennis Club (Ricardo Giraldo, Santiago Méndez Jr. and Javier Cazorla)

To see the complete results, please click the following links:

Corbillion Detallado

Corbillion Sumario

R-700

left to right: The National Table Tennis Champion of Panama – Justo Altamiranda
and Former Mens Team Member of Guatemala – Lester Sanjay

Winners of the Team Event (- Costa Rican Team) Allan Calvo (left ) and
Steve Herra (right) from the Costa Rica’s National Team

Winners of the Team Event (- Costa Rican Team)

Allan Calvo (left ) and Steve Herra ( second to left) -
from the Costa Rica’s National Team

Winner of the individual event under 700 hundred points:
Santiago Méndez Jr. – Champion ( center of the picture)