Saint Lucia got into action at the Junior Pan Am Games in Asunción, with Joshua Lubin and Manie Eleuthere competing in men’s table tennis on Saturday at the National Sports Secretariat. The young champions contested the opening rounds of the men’s singles and men’s doubles. They faced players from Brazil, Venezuela and Paraguay.
Lubin, who is preparing to start university studies in Taiwan next month, faced Leonardo Iizuka of Brazil. Although both are 19, Iizuka is 29th in the International Table Tennis Federation youth rankings, with 2,695 points. With 10 points, Lubin is 1934th.
Iizuka won in straight sets, 4:0 (11:4, 11:3, 11:4, 11:6).
Eleuthere, meanwhile, lost to Venezuela’s Jesus Tovar. Eleuthere, 16, is world-ranked 1633rd with 16 points. Tovar, 17, is 102nd with 1,555 points. Tovar won 4:1 (11:7, 11:9, 5:11, 11:5, 11:7) over the Ciceron Secondary School student.
In doubles, Paraguay’s Axel Bertolo and Ivan Pastore took 18 minutes to hand their Saint Lucian counterparts a 3:0 (11:3, 11:6, 11:8) defeat. Lubin and Eleuthere finished ninth overall in doubles and tied for 17th in singles.11:3, 11:6, 11:8
Next up for Saint Lucia is the team competition, where they will play Canada, Paraguay and Puerto Rico. That aspect of the Games gets underway on Tuesday.
