Saint Lucia’s leading table tennis player, 19-year-old De Andre Calderon, had a successful trip to St Vincent & the Grenadines at the weekend, picking up a gold medal and a bronze in the My Smart Toilet Seat Table Tennis Series.
The island’s reigning Junior Sportsman of the Year, Calderon played in the open gender juniors (Under-21) and senior divisions.
In the juniors quarterfinals, he beat Barbados’ Mdjai Collymore 11-4, 11-3, 11-2, 11-9. He then lost to eventual champion Derron Douglas of Trinidad & Tobago 4-3 (9-11, 11-8, 10-12, 11-5, 9-11, 12-10, 10-12) in the semifinals.
In the third-place playoff, the Corinth native dropped just 12 games in four sets, winning 11-2, 11-2, 11-2, 11-6 over Lamont Gregg.
That was literally just a warmup for Calderon, however, as he was in the seniors final. Calderon beat Trinidad & Tobago’s Selwyn Sinnette 11-4, 11-3, 11-5, 11-5 in the Round of 16, before beating St Vincent & the Grenadines’ Damion Dublin 11-8, 11-1, 11-6, 11-3 in the quarterfinals.
Once again, the Saint Lucian champion met Douglas in the semis, this time winning 11-5, 6-11, 12-10, 11-6, 11-3. That pitted him against Barbados’ Trevor Farley in the final, where Calderon won 11-5, 11-4, 10-12, 11-7, 10-12, 11-6 to take the seniors title.
