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MATTA prepares for goodwill tilt on Tinian
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Posted on Jun 03 2005
The Marianas Amateur Table Tennis Association players are training in earnest for their goodwill tournament against neighboring Tinian next week.
MATTA official Mario Espeleta said the association’s top players have been honing their skills and building endurance the past few weeks at their new “training” facility located on the third floor of the Millennium Plaza building in Garapan.
He said they have been training three to four hours a day, three to four times a week at the location, in part to prepare the four players and coach MATTA will be sending to Palau for the 2005 South Pacific Mini Games in July.
However, Espeleta said the immediately goal is to beat Tinian in the goodwill tournament set for this coming Saturday and Sunday, June 11 and 12, at the Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino Ballroom.
He said an eight-man team made up of himself, MATTA president Steven Lim, Budhi Gurung, Simon Li, Su Dong, Chen Lin Ying, Huang Zhenfa, and a still unnamed player will travel to Tinian to take part in the goodwill tournament.
Espeleta also said playing against Tinian and possibly even Guam players would allow MATTA players, especially those representing the CNMI in the 2005 Mini Games, a chance to gauge their level of play and how much they have improved since beginning the hectic training schedule.
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.
