MATTA welcomes Guam paddlers

The Marianas Amateur Table Tennis Association last Friday welcomed the three ping-pong players from Guam that were set to compete in the 9th Goodwill Table Tennis Tournament scheduled over the weekend at the Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino.

Guam Amateur Table Tennis Association players Hisamitsu Hamamoto, Carlos Gumataotao, and Edmund Ho were greeted at the Saipan International Airport by MATTA members led by its president Steven Lim and director Mario Espeleta.

During their short conversation with the GATT players, Espeleta was able to find out that Hamamoto is interested in bringing in table tennis players from Japan to the CNMI in the near future.

Gumataotao, who helped his team win the silver medal in the 7th Palau South Pacific Mini Games in Koror in 2005, Ho and Hanamoto battled two three-man teams from host Tinian and the visiting Saipan squad over the weekend. Results, however, were still not available as of press time.

Tinian’s Mark Ma, Charlie Cheng, and Luke Lu, meanwhile, were expected to lead Tinian A, while Tinian B was composed of Robin Lu, Liang Wei Bin with the third player a toss up between Bright Liu and Alfred Yu.

Micro Games women’s singles gold medalist Jean Shi, team gold medal winners Su Yong Dong and Budhi Gurung were the members of Saipan Team A, while Peter De Leon, Con Pobre, and MATTA president Lim comprised Saipan B.

In October last year, Saipan scored a 21-15 win over Tinian in the 2007 Saipan vs. Tinian Goodwill Games at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

After taking a 9-8 lead following the first 17 games of the one-day tournament, ping-pong players from Saipan got rolling in the afternoon matches, taking 12 of the final 19 matches to win the biannual Goodwill Games between the two islands, 21-15.

Leading the charge for MATTA was Su’s undefeated 6-0 record with Gurung’s 5-1 mark and the 4-2 record of Shi backing him up.

Gurung’s only loss came against Ma, while Shi had her setbacks exacted by the Lu brothers.

Tinian’s top triumvirate of Ma and Lu brothers all finished with identical 4-2 records, while their supporting cast of Liu, Zhang, and Qu were a combined 3-15 in the win-loss column.

In April last year, Tinian made sure the perpetual cup remained on Tinian as the powerhouse TDHC table tennis club dominated the MATTA delegation in the first leg of the 2007 Saipan vs. Tinian Goodwill Games.

Tinian’s top pen-holders beat Saipan’s best paddlers, 28-21, in a showdown between teams made up of six veterans of 2006’s gold-medal winning CNMI Men’s National Table Tennis Team at the TDHC ballroom.