Belize City, May 19, 2013
Three champs rose to the occasion when the Belize Table Tennis Association held the 2013 SMART bi-annual national ranking tournament at the Belize Elementary School auditorium over the weekend. Daniel Sanchez Jr. won as new national champion in the 18 and under category, Fabio Carballo won the 15 and under category, and Bjourne Gabourel won the 12 and under category.
Some 65 players from ages 7 to 18 began in 3 age groups and after a grueling 2 days of competition in which over 360 matches were played, the top 4 winners in each category emerged.
Daniel Sanchez Jr. was undefeated to take the 18-and under title, while, his challenger, Fabio Carballo took 2nd place, Mishek Musa was 3rd and Aaron Stock 4th.
Fabio Carballo was competing in 2 categories and he won the national championship in the 15 and under category, in which Joshua Gegg won 2nd place, Gian Lisbey was 3rd and Daniel Echeverria 4th.
Bjourne Gabourel took the 12 and under title over Alexis Tun who won 2nd place; Amiri Hoare was 3rd and Tristan Flowers was 4th.
A representative from SMART, Ian Courtenay, was on hand to deliver trophies to all the winners. Taye Parkinson, the youngest player at 7 years old also won an award for showing enthusiasm and sportsmanship by winning many games in the competition; he was awarded a new table tennis racket.