Table tennis tryouts this Tuesday and Thursday

Marianas Amateur Table Tennis Association will have its Saipan tryouts for players that would represent the CNMI in the 6th Micronesian Games this Tuesday, March 14, and Thursday, March 16, at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium multi-purpose room.

MATTA official Budhi Gurung is inviting local players and nonresidents on Saipan to join the two-day tryout, which will start on the dot at 8pm at the Oleai Sports Complex.

As per rules of the Micronesian Games Council, nonresidents must have at least seven years of residency in the CNMI to be eligible for the Games, while players from Micronesia must have lived in the islands for at least four years.

According to Gurung, the two-day tryout on Saipan will use a round-robin format with the ultimate goal of choosing six men players and four women players to wear the CNMI’s colors in the quadrennial event set here on Saipan from June 23 to July 2.

The second leg of the tryouts for the national ping-pong team will continue on April 1 and 2, Saturday and Sunday, on Tinian. Gurung said the Tinian edition of the tryouts would coincide with MATTA’s biannual goodwill tournament with the table tennis club of Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino.

Like swimming, triathlon, baseball, and softball, table tennis is one of the sports the CNMI is expected to do well and medal in the Games.

In the 2005 South Pacific Mini Games in Palau, Gurung teamed up with Lin Yin Cheng and Su Yong Dong to win a bronze medal in the team competition for table tennis.

The CNMI actually finished fourth behind powerhouses New Caledonia (Gold), Guam (Silver), Fiji (Bronze), but since the South Pacific Games Council awards two bronze medals—one for the third place team and a second to the fourth place teams—the CNMI was able to salvage bronze.

The team’s brightest moment during the Mini Games came against Solomon Islands, whose players were swept by the NMI representatives, 9-0.

The CNMI Men’s National Table Tennis Team rebounded admirably from a 9-0 shutout suffered in the hands of Guam earlier in the competition.

Aside from their shellacking of the Solomon Islands, Gurung and company also swept Marshalls, 9-0, and took two of the nine games against New Caledonia in their opening bout and took Fiji to the limit before falling, 5-4.