‘Rookies’ to try their best to represent CNMI

All three haven’t played table tennis for awhile, but all seem willing to try their best to represent their adopted islands when they suit up for Team CNMI in the 6th Micronesian Games set here on Saipan from June 23 to July 2.

Lucita Pasana, Rose Agulto, and Siri Welch—who make up two thirds of the CNMI Women’s Table Tennis Team—were the first to admit that they haven’t held a ping-pong paddle for sometime now much less played competitive table tennis.

However, all three are in agreement that in order for the women’s ping-pong squad to be successful against the likes of Micronesian powerhouses Guam and Palau, they must step up and give support to the Commonwealth’s No. 1 player Jean Shi.

Pasana, who is the most senior of three at 38 years old, is more known in the local sports scene as a tennis player, but made the shift a few months ago so she could represent Saipan, which she has made her home the past decade.

Pasana said she first played ping-pong in elementary while waiting for the local tennis courts to clear up in her native Cebu, Philippines.

The Luen Fung employee and former Pacific Islands Club Clubmate said she actually wanted to tryout for tennis but realized she can’t take the sun and the heat because the sport usually plays during midday.

Pasana said adjusting to table tennis was hard because unlike tennis, ping-pong doesn’t make use of follow through and relies mostly on wrist action.

She said she is proud to play for the national team and that it kind of reminds her of her experience representing her school back in her high school and college years.

Agulto, for her part, said although she last played ping-pong in 2000 and is only about 60 percent from her peak form, she will try to win at least two games for the CNMI.

The 31-year-old legal secretary at O’Connor Law Office got her start in table tennis at a very young age, as her dad encouraged her to take up sports growing up in Surigao Del Sur, Philippines.

Agulto continued honing her skills during her elementary and high school years and was part of the varsity team when she studied at the University of San Carlos in Cebu. She came to Saipan nine years ago.

Welch, meanwhile, is the Benjamin of the team at only 20 years old. The petite employee of Hyatt Regency Saipan said she first picked up a ping-pong paddle in elementary and was so good that she won a championship in high school.

Her attention, however, drifted to playing other sports like volleyball and soccer in her native Thailand, as she was the first to admit that, “I like to try different sports.”

She moved to Saipan with her mother, Jorm, and stepfather, Tom Welch—of Fiesta Resort & Spa fame—in 1999, but it was not until recently that she was reacquainted with the sport of her youth when she participated in an in-house ping-pong tournament at the Hyatt.

There she met local table tennis great and 2005 Palau South Pacific Mini Games bronze medalist Budhi Gurung, who after seeing her play, immediately encouraged Welch to try out for the national team.

She said she would try her best to represent Saipan, “because this is like my island now. It’s really my home now.”

Welch also said that while training has been hard, she has learned a lot of things—both from the more experienced women and men players—and is looking forward to wear the CNMI colors in the quadrennial event.