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Jeon leads CNMI winners in Day 1 of POJC
Jeon
Michael Jeon shone the brightest among the 17 CNMI players seeing action for the North Pacific Team in Day 1 of the 2023 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships last Monday in Lautoka, Fiji.
According to CNMI Sports Hall of Famer and North Pacific Team coach Jeff Race, Jeon won his boys 12 team match.
He and his partner were down two match points at 7-9 in the super tiebreaker and won four straight points to take it 11-9.
He and Ryan Choi eventually pulled off the game to win, 6-0, 6-2, and help their team to victory 2-1 over Cook Islands.
Other Day 1 winners among CNMI netters include La Hunn Lam over Fiji’s Frank Sun, 6-0, 6-0, in the boys 12; June Yu over Samoa’s Titus Paul, 6-2, 6-4, and boys 16’s Simon Tang over Luke Pierre of Cook Islands, 6-1, 6-2.
In other results, girls 16’s Hoo Wang lost to third seed Freemont Gibson of Guam, 2-6, 2–6; girls 14 fourth seed Anne Lee was upset by American Samoa’s Dora Moore, 3-6, 6-2, 2-10; boys 16’s Henry Seungwoo Choi lost to American Samoa’s Darius Carruthers, 2-6, 1-6; boys 14’s Nasson Wessel challenged No. 2 seed Nicholas Montaigut of Tahiti before losing. 2-6, 6-4, 8-10; boys 14’s Siwoo Lee dropped a 5-7, 3-6 game to Fiji’s Uraia Ratu; girls 16’s Irin Chung succumbed to Vanuatu’s Abygael Coeuillet, 0-6, 5-7; and girls 14’s Lina Tsukagoshi was beaten by Vanuatu’s Ashanti Ligo, 1-6, 1-6.
In other team matches, the CNMI beat Tahiti, 2-1, in the girls 12 as the Commonwealth netters went 2-2 in team play on Day 1 of the POJC.
Colin Ramsey, who is assisting Race in Fiji, said Jeon, Lam, and Tang saved what could’ve been a disastrous Day 1 for Commonwealth netters in Fiji.
“It was a tough first day for Team NMI, but we won’t know much until after the second or third day. Who will be moving on and who will be battling for the lower spots,” he said.
Day 2 results of the POJC will be published in tomorrow’s issue of Saipan Tribune.
