All\u2019s well that end\u2019s well.<\/p>\n
The CNMI National Table Tennis Team finally found a regular practice facility after the Marianas Amateur Table Tennis Association Monday secured permission to use the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium in the late evenings.<\/p>\n
MATTA president Steve Lim, who just arrived from vacation in Manila, Philippines, said they were able to get permission to use the facility from Division of Sports and Recreation acting director Joe Lizama through coordination between DSR staff Elias Rangamar and MATTA official Mario Espeleta.<\/p>\n
\u201cJoe [Lizama] and Eli [Rangamar] of DSR have been gracious and hospitable enough to give us a schedule here at the Gym for practice,\u201d he said, also adding that it was through the efforts of Espeleta that MATTA was able to secure a training schedule at the Oleai Sports Complex venue. <\/p>\n
According to Espeleta the national ping-pong team has secured the late evening shift at the Ada Gym. On Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays, MATTA can use the gym beginning at 9pm, starting 8-8:30pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 1pm to 5pm on Saturdays, and from 3pm to 9pm on Sundays.<\/p>\n
Lim said there\u2019s a world of difference between playing and practicing at the gym and the multi-purpose room.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing\u2019s for sure there\u2019s a lot more space. Instinctively, players also restrict themselves to their allotted space. In the multi-purpose room, when they receive big hits they don\u2019t try to reach after it anymore to return the ball because of the confined space. Out here [Ada Gym] there\u2019s a lot more space, so they could really run after the ball and in the process play and practice to their full potential,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lim also confirmed that Tinian-based members of the ping-pong team\u2014Luke Lu, Charlie Cheng, and alternate Liang Wei Bin\u2014will indeed train on Saipan on the weekends.<\/p>\n
The three will come to Saipan along with the 22-year-old former coach of the Yin He Table Tennis Club, Zheng Ma.<\/p>\n
Lim said the national team is happy to have a professional coach giving them pointers and tips even though the Games are a mere two weeks away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re ecstatic. All the players are happy about the hiring of Ma. They know they will all benefit from his coaching even though it will only be for a short while. From what I heard he\u2019s really good and his level of play is nothing we have seen before on Saipan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Other members of the national table tennis team are Saipan-based players Su Yong Dong, Chen Lin Ying, and Budhi Gurung. The three bagged the bronze medal in last year\u2019s Palau South Pacific Mini Games.<\/p>\n
MATTA also named its national women\u2019s ping-pong team last month and it includes veteran paddler Jean Shi, netter-turned-table tennis player Lucita Pasana, and up-and-coming players Rose Agulto and Siri Welch.<\/p>\n
Lim also disclosed that the ping-pong competition of the Games will be made up of seven events, namely men\u2019s and women\u2019s team, men\u2019s and women\u2019s doubles, men\u2019s and women\u2019s singles, and mixed doubles.<\/p>\n
He also said that officially four nations have registered for the competition\u2014the CNMI, Guam, Palau, and Kiribati. Marshall and all the four islands of the Federated States of Micronesia\u2014Pohnpei, Chuuk, Kosrae, and Yap\u2014are not yet in officially albeit have sent verbal confirmation that they will participate in the event, according to Lim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
All\u2019s well that end\u2019s well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}