20 Nov 2016

Visitors Argentina and the host nation had shared the honours in the individual events on the opening day of play, Thursday 17th November, at the 2016 Chile Para Open Championships in Santiago.

One day later on Friday 18th November, they were very much the potent force as the Men’s Team events commenced.

by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

Five teams competing in group all-play-all Class 1-5 competition, the Argentine formation comprising Daniel Rodriguez and Elias Romero remained unbeaten as did the Chilean partnership comprising Cristian Gonzalez and Alfonso Diaz.

Neither outfit was ever troubled with two matches to nil outcomes being recorded on each visit to the table; the format of play being the same as utilised in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. A doubles match commences proceedings followed by a singles contest; should the score in the fixture be level, a further singles match, with players different to the immediate previous, is played to determine the winner.

Likewise, in Class 6-8, Argentina and Chile were the prevalent forces in a competition where there were two groups in the first phase of proceedings; teams finishing in first and second positions in each group advanced to the semi-finals.

Chile’s Matias Pino and Osvaldo Torres finished ahead of Argentina’s Aleksy Kaniuka and Alejandro Perez; in the counterpart group the host nation’s Rupert Morales and Juan Sepuldeva secured top spot with Ecuador’s Paul Polo and David Vasquez in second spot.

Meanwhile, in Class 9-10, it was the same as in Class 1-5 with the group formula being the order of proceedings.

The home country was very much to the fore, Alvaro Vega and Valentin Letelier remained unbeaten as did the combination of Chilean colleague Manuel Echaveguren and Argentina’s Dario Neira.

However, they were tested by Brazil’s Claudio Massad and Ricardo Narusawa; the player to cause the problems being Claudio Massad.

He beat Manuel Echaveguren in the second match of the fixture (11-4, 11-3, 11-9), after the latter had partnered Dario Neira to doubles success (11-7, 11-13, 12-10, 10-12, 11-4). Matters concluded with Dario Neira overcoming Ricardo Narusawa (15-13, 11-4, 11-4) to seal the victory.

Play in Santiago concludes on Saturday 19th November.

2016 Chile Para Open: Individual and Team Event Results

Paralympics Para Table Tennis Chile Para Open Matias Pino Alvaro Vega Elias Romero Valentin Letelier Osvaldo Torres Daniel Rodriguez