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Goodwill ping-pong moved to July
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Posted on Jun 13 2005
The 2005 CNMI Friendship Cup Invitational Table Tennis Tournament on Tinian originally set for this past weekend, was pushed back for next month, according to Marianas Amateur Table Tennis Association president Steven Lim.
Lim, who will coach the CNMI National Table Tennis Team for the 2005 Palau South Pacific Mini Games, said tournament host Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino informed him last week that they have decided to postpone the goodwill event to the first or second week of July.
The MATTA president said the move of postponing the tournament for a few weeks would allow Tinian Dynasty more time to convince players from Guam to join the event, making the tournament truly a Marianas-wide competition.
“Once again, an invitation was extended to neighboring Guam. Two months back, they have signified once again their desire to participate in the next tournament that will be hosted in the CNMI, but the last actual visit from Guam came in 1994,” he said.
If that succeeds, it would allow MATTA and its three players bound for Palau—Budhi Gurung, Chen Lin Yeng, and Su Dong—to properly gauge their level of play against a deeper pool of talent, and probably even against competition from the U.S. territory’s national players for table tennis.
Lim, however, said he is not betting on it.
“In case there will be players from Guam, most likely it will not be their selection for the Mini Games that will come over to join the Marianas Friendship tournament,” he said.
In the two-year history of the goodwill table tennis tournaments between Saipan and Tinian, the southerners have completely owned the northerners, winning all four head-to-head matches.
In May 2004, Tinian won 18 out of the 25 total matches to win the 2004 CNMI Friendship Cup Invitational Table Tennis Tournament. Tinian then made it four straight last November by taking home the overall championship of the 2004 Marianas Friendship Table Tennis Tournament hosted by MATTA at the Northern Marianas College Gymnasium.
