The 2024 ITTF-Americas Central American & Caribbean Championships kicked off in the Dominican Republic’s capital of Santo Domingo on Thursday, bringing together top table tennis talent from across the region to compete for continental honors. Through the first two days of men’s team play, one team has yet to claim a victory: Barbados.
In their opening round-robin matchup on tournament day one, the Barbadian side suffered a lopsided 3-0 sweep at the hands of Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rican squad dominated every set across all three singles matches, with Steven Moreno delivering a straight-sets win over Barbados’ Tyrese Knight (11-6, 11-6, 11-6), Angel Naranjo claiming an equally decisive victory against Mark Dowell (11-3, 11-5, 11-3), and Enrique Rios closing out the sweep with a straight-sets win over Tre Riley (11-7, 11-10, 11-5).
Looking to bounce back in their second group match on Friday, Barbados showed significant improvement on the court, but still fell just short of their first win, dropping another 3-0 decision to Costa Rica. While the final score mirrored their opening day result, the matchups were far more competitive. Costa Rica’s Sebastien Alviles was pushed to a full five-set thriller before he secured a win over Dowell (9-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-3, 11-6). Jeison Martinez had to come from behind after dropping the opening set to defeat Knight (5-11, 11-9, 11-9, 14-12), and Alejandro Montoya also dropped a set before locking in a four-set win over Riley (13-11, 6-11, 11-9, 11-9) to seal the sweep for Costa Rica.
Barbados was not the only Caribbean side struggling in the early stages of the tournament, with other English-speaking Caribbean teams also facing tough results against higher-ranked regional competitors. Cuba claimed a narrow 3-2 win over St. Lucia in their first matchup before following that up with a 3-0 sweep of the same side in a second contest. Mexico shut out Guyana 3-0, Guatemala earned a 3-0 win against St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the host Dominican Republic delivered a 3-0 sweep of Jamaica. Puerto Rico notched another 3-0 victory against Trinidad and Tobago to round out early results.
Among the struggling Caribbean nations, Jamaica was able to rebound in a later match on Friday, picking up its first win of the tournament with a 3-1 victory over St. Lucia to keep its hopes of advancing out of the group stage alive.