Over the weekend, the Caribbean leg of the ITTF Americas Youth Championships wrapped up its under-19 boys’ team competition in Santo Domingo, with three young table tennis players from Saint Lucia producing a remarkable underdog performance to claim third place overall and punch their ticket to the continental finals slated for Guatemala this August.
Held at the capital’s Parque del Este Table Tennis Hall, the regional qualifier drew six competing nations, split into two preliminary groups of three. For Saint Lucia’s trio of Manie Eleuthere, Leshon Francis, and Kamari Harris — all top finishers from the country’s national Secondary School Championships, hailing from Castries Comprehensive Secondary School, Ciceron Secondary, and St Mary’s College respectively — a top-two finish in Group 1 was required to advance to the semifinal round and lock in qualification for the August 23-30 continental tournament.
Saint Lucia’s campaign got off to a tough start, suffering a tight 3-0 opening defeat to higher-ranked Puerto Rico. Both Francis and Eleuthere pushed their Puerto Rican opponents Cuadro and Ayala to the brink in close contests, with Cuadro edging Francis in a decisive fifth set 14-12, while Harris also dropped his match against Ayala, leaving Saint Lucia winless heading into their do-or-die preliminary matchup with Jamaica.
The young Saint Lucian side rallied spectacularly against Jamaica, pulling off a tense 3-2 victory to secure their knockout stage berth. Francis opened the tie with a dominant 3-0 sweep of Jayden Ebanks, claiming each set by comfortable margins, before Eleuthere defeated the Jamaica-based overseas competitor Joel Lamm in four sets to put Saint Lucia up 2-0. Jamaica fought back: Gmarco Smith downed Harris in four sets, then Lamm blanked Francis 3-0 to level the overall tie at 2-2, setting up a decisive winner-takes-all match between Eleuthere and Ebanks.
With a vocal pro-Jamaica crowd looking on, Ebanks took the opening set 11-8. Eleuthere, however, stayed calm and reeled off three consecutive set wins to seal the victory, securing second place in Group 1 for Saint Lucia and booking his country’s place at the continental championships later this year.
In the semifinal round, the unseeded Saint Lucian side fell to host nation the Dominican Republic in a 3-0 defeat, leaving them tied for third place overall with Group 2 runners-up Trinidad & Tobago. Eleuthere dropped his contest against Rafael Cabrera 3-0, while Francis fell 3-1 to Ramon Vila, and Harris suffered a 3-1 loss to Alexander Tejada. Even with the semifinal defeat, the team’s third-place finish marks a successful regional run, and qualifying for the continental finals represents a major milestone for youth table tennis in Saint Lucia.
This week, the ITTF Americas Caribbean Youth Championships continue in Santo Domingo, with men’s singles and women’s team competition kicking off for young athletes across the region.