Tournaments

20 Nov 2018

Cuba, Guatemala and Bolivia; they are the opponents for the host nation in the first stage of the Men’s Team event at the 2018 ITTF Pan American Championships, play commencing in the country’s capital city of Santiago on Tuesday 20th November.

Just as with every country competing, the focus is to achieve a top six finish and thus gain a direct entry for the 2019 Pan American Games to be stage in Lima, Peru from Friday 26th July to Sunday 11th August.

by Ian Marshall, Editor (interviews by Mauricio Traviño)

Much is expected of the Chilean Men’s Team, not only are they competing on home soil, they are the no.2 seeds behind defending champions Brazil.

Orchestrated by Marco Nuñez, the always smiling national coach, they select from Felipe Olivares, Juan Lamadrid, Gustavo Gomez and Alfonso Olave; notably they have just completed a week long training session organized under the auspices of the Chilean National Olympic Committee.

Expectations are high and it would seem the players are in confident mood, ready for the contests that await.

“We have been training very thoroughly and already preparing the final details for the tournament. We all hope to gain a place on the podium, we have worked for that and we believe that we will take our chances.” Juan Lamadrid

Furthermore, the Men’s Team is not without experience in the tournament, one year ago when the event was staged in the Cartagena de Indias, the same four players were on duty.

However, they will be seeking better fortunes on home soil; the visit to the shores of the Mediterranean was not to prove the most rewarding experience. In Colombia, they suffered a somewhat surprise three-two defeat in the group phase when facing Paraguay and the same outcome at the quarter-final stage when opposing Argentina, the eventual silver medallists. In Santiago, there is an inner determination to set the record straight

Play in the Men’s Team event concludes on Thursday 22nd November.

2018 Pan American Championships Gustavo Gomez Juan Lamadrid Felipe Olivares Alfonso Olave
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Day 6 - 2018 Pan America Championships