News >> Gauteng Central Players Win at Gauteng North Junior Open

Gauteng Central Players Win at Gauteng North Junior Open

Gauteng North held their Junior and U/21 Championships on 31 May 2014 at the Joni Bach Sports Centre. This is an excellent venue in the North of Pretoria and will also be hosting the SA Paraplegic Table Tennis Championships later in the year.

The event was well supported and it was encouraging to see the relatively large turnout. This particularly in the Boys U/14 event, which included well over 30 entries. Gauteng North also added the U/21 section, which provided this group of players with the opportunity to compete in their own age group, as opposed to having to participate in the Open event.

Gauteng Central had a number of players that took part in the tournament. In the U/14 Girls section Lailaa Edwards  (Raiders Table Tennis Club) come second and so won the Silver medal. The U/14 Boys event had 3 participants, namely Richard Hearne (Blue Fountains Table Tennis Club), Mikaeel Samodien (Raiders Table Tennis Club)  and Aiden Schlome (Maccabi Table Tennis Club). Mikaeel reached the Quarter Finals and Aiden went on to win this hotly contested age group.

Danica Schlome (Maccabi Table Tennis Club) won the U/17 Girls section. In the U/21 Women’s event there was very close competition. Chavah Barit, after losing her opening match, eventually prevailed to win the Gold medal. Shakeel Edwards (Raiders Table Tennis Club), who will play in the U/17 section at the South African Championships in Bloemforntein, in July, was told by the organizers that it was an under 17 event and as he had already turned 17 was ineligible to compete in this event. Not letting this hold him back, be competed in the every strong U/21 event, which was played on a round robin basis. When all matches had been completed, each of the 3 top players (which included Shakeel) had won 2 matches. Based on the method used to determine a winner, Shakeel was adjudged to have finished 3rd. This was a successful tournament for Gauteng Central players, finishing with 3 first places and 1 second place.