

Six of the island’s eight education districts were represented on Wednesday at the Inter-District Primary School Table Tennis Team Championships, a joint initiative between the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports and the National Table Tennis Association. But none of the other teams could halt the march of District 1, who swept the boys’ and girls’ titles at the Beausejour Gymnasium.
The boys from the northernmost district have not lost in the nine years of this Under-13 competition. This year, they took the top two positions. Reuben Harris and Axel George, ranked first and third among the island’s Under-11 boys, defeated teammates Milan Clifford, Malachi Stanislas, and Joshua Joseph 3-0 for the title. District 4A took third with Louie Arthur and Shawneil Deterville.
In the girls’ segment, the District 1A team, represented by Nefertari Goddard and Kizie Edward, bounced back from defeat in 2024. They overcame the District 6A team of Monae Linor and Eurnisha Braville with a score of 3-1. District 4A’s Katelyn Montoute and Simone Pelage secured third place by defeating District 6B 3-2.
“It went well,” said tournament director and lead coach attached to the Ministry, Chris Wells. “The level of play was pretty decent, especially among the boys. A number of the boys train at least six hours a week, and four or five boys showed a high level of skill. The competition has been very good in terms of the fact that there are a lot of competitive matches, and the districts come out in full force. Most of the teams were well-balanced islandwide.
“These districts have conducted internal district tournaments and festivals to select their squads, except for Districts 5 and 7. The event’s format consisted of four groups of three teams, with the best two teams from each group advancing to the quarterfinal round, followed by the semifinals and finals,” Wells added.
On Friday, the players will compete at the same venue for the boys’ and girls’ singles, boys’ and girls’ doubles, and mixed doubled tournament from 10 a.m. Each of the six participating districts will field two male and two female teams.