SAN JOSÉ DE COSTA RICA, CRC (December 13, 2021) – Lead by Class 5 seated athlete Muhammed Mudassar of Toronto, ON, Canada posted four stellar performances at this past weekend’s ITTF Para Copa Costa Rica Bicentenario 2021 table tennis competition in Costa Rica to take home two silver and two bronze medals.
Mudassar won bronze in his class 5 singles event and then teamed up with USA class 5 athlete Ahad Sarand to win three straight team matches, including a great match against Great Britain in the semi-finals to advance to the final. The final featured a superbly talented team from Chile who after a hard fought 3-2 loss in doubles, posted a win to tie the team match 1-1. This set up a clash between Mudassar and the Chilean athlete Rodriguez for the final match, with Rodriguez proving too tricky for Mudassar who ended up losing the match, giving Chile the gold medal while the combined USA/Canada team took silver.
Martin Pelletier from Gatineau, QC, who is returning to competition following a lengthy absence, had a disappointing day in the Class 9 singles competition, but teamed up with Syed Asad Hussain of Toronto, ON (who is also back to competition after a lengthy absence) in the team competition to defeat a team from Costa Rica/Colombia in the second round giving them a chance to capture a silver medal. They accomplished this task by besting Costa Rica’s top team to add to Canada’s medal haul from the competition with another silver medal.
Mathias Yeh of Toronto, ON teamed up with Gilbran Hussein Sarfaraz from Guyana and Randall Medcalf of the USA in the Class 10 team competition, and after defeating a team from Costa Rica and dropping a match to Chile they ran into another team from Costa Rica in the semi final and lost that match to leave the competition with a bronze medal.
“I am generally pleased overall as winning four medals is quite an achievement,” said Ian Kent, head coach for Canada’s para table tennis team. “Considering the age of these four athletes, they are pushing each other and actually improving some of the finer aspects of a higher level of table tennis. With Chile hosting the 2023 Para Pan American Games just a year and a half away, these athletes are committed to improving to all become medal threats. We were without veteran Stephanie Chan, and young upstarts Gabriel Seguin, Peter Isherwood, and Curtis Caron (at this competition), so things are moving in the right direction as preparations continue for a strong showing at the 2023 Games.”
Full results from the competition can be found here: https://www.ittf.com/tournament/5131/ITTF-Para-Copa-Costa-Rica-Bicentenario-2021/
