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March 24, 2009

Latin American Team Titles for Brazil and Chile

Cazuo Matsumoto the backbone of Brazilian success alongside Hugo Hoyama. Photo By: Marcio Rodrigues

Courtesy of ITTF Brazil and Chile emerged as the respective Men’s and Women’s Team champions at the Latin American Championships in San Salvador on Monday March 23, 2009; at the final hurdle, Brazil overcame archrivals Argentina, while Chile defeated Colombia. Both teams had started as favorites to contest the gold medal duels with the Brazilian squad of Hugo Hoyama, Cazuo Matsumoto, Eric Mancini and Paolo Rocha occupying the top seeded place, while the Chileans, Berta Rodriguez, Paulina Vega, Natalia Castellano and Blanca Duran, were seeded two.

QuarterFinals Negotiated
The qualification group stage negotiated successfully; Brazil overcame Ecuador in the quarterfinals by three matches to one with the one contest to go astray being the defeat of Eric Mancini by Geovanny Coello.

Furthermore, the contest nearly went the full five match distance with Hugo Hoyama only beating Alberto Miño by the skin of his teeth. The two further wins for Brazil came from Cazuo Matsumoto against Alberto Miño and in the doubles where Hugo Hoyama and Eric Mancini proved far too strong for Geovanny Coello and Dino Suarez.

No Charity
A place in the semi-finals booked, the same Brazilian trio lined up against the Colombians Mauricio Rivera, Juan Restrepo and Alexander Echavarria; in no mood for charity the Brazils recorded an impressive three matches to nil victory with no contest going the full five games distance.

Final
However, the final was a much tougher affair and it could have gone in favor of Argentina just as easily as it went in favor of Brazil. The first three matches all went the full five games distance.

Hugo Hoyama overcame Gaston Alto, Cazuo Matsumoto accounted for Pablo Tabachnik while for Argentina, Gaston Alto and Diego Temperley joined forces to beat Hugo Hoyama and Eric Mancini.

Alas for Argentina there was to be no incredible recovery, Cazuo Matsumoto beat Diego Temperley in straight games to bring matters to an abrupt conclusion.

Women’s Team Event
Success for Brazil and success for Chile in the Women’s Team event with semi-final victories recorded over Puerto Rico’s Jerica Marrero, Lyanne Aponte and Glorianny Baba by three matches to one, before a three-two victory was posted over Colombia’s Paula Medina, Aura Ocampo and Luisa Zuluaga.

At the semi-final stage Colombia had beaten top seeds Brazil represented by the squad of Jessica Yamada, Ligia Silva, Mariany Nonaka and Carina Murashige.