(by Steve Hopkins, photo ITTFWorld)

The team events have ended at the 2023 ITTF Pan American Youth Championships (U15 and U19) in Charleston, West Virginia, and Team USA made all four team event finals, claiming 3 gold medals and 1 silver medal.  Its a great start for the American squad as the tournament shifts to the 10 remaining events (singles and doubles in the U19 and U15 age groups).

In the U19 Boys Teams, it was USA over Puerto Rico 3-0 in the Semifinals, and USA over Brazil 3-2 in the Final.  In the Final, Iizuka Kenzo topped Daniel Tran 3-2 to give Brazil an early lead.  Nandan Naresh then beat Kim Iwasaki 3-0 and Darryl Tsao pulled out a tight win over Felipe Arado Doti 3-2 to put TeamUSA ahead 2-1 in the match.  Iizuka Keno won a tough match over Nandan Naresh 3-2 to even the score, but Daniel Tran sealed the win for TeamUSA with a 3-1 win over Kim Iwasaki in the last match.  USA wins Gold, Brazil wins Silver, and Puerto Rico and Peru finish with Bronze.

In the U19 Girls Teams, it was TeamUSA defeating top seeded Brazil 3-1 in the Semifinals and the topping Puerto Rico 3-0 in the Final.  In the Final it was Emily Tan over Brianna Burgos, Sally Moyland over Kristal Melendez, and Tiffany Ke over Alondra Rodriguez (all 3-0).  USA wins Gold, Puerto Rico takes the Silver, and Canada and Brazil finish with Bronze.

In the U15 Boys Teams, TeamUSA defeated top seeded Puerto Rico 3-2 in a comeback upset win after falling behind 0-2.  TeamUSA then faced off against second seeded Brazil in the Final and again fell behind 0-2.  Davi Fuji and Lucas Romanski defeated USA’s Stanley Hsu and Krish Gandhi in the first two matches to give Brazil the 2-0 lead.  Then Xianyao He and Stanley Hsu fought back with wins (over Iwamoto and Romanski) to tie the score.  But Davi Fujii was too tough for Krish Gandhi in the final match, giving Brazil the 3-2 win.  Brazil wins Gold, USA take Silver, Puerto Rico and Peru each win Bronze.

In the U15 Girls Teams, USA topped Ecuador in the Semifinal 3-0 and then won a tight match 3-2 over Canada.  Canada won the first match 3-2 (Jessie Xu over Amy Zhang).  USA’s Amber Liu then won 3-0 over Ivy Pan to even the score.  Canada jumped ahead again when Emily Liu won a tight 3-2 match over Yishiuan Lin.  But Amber Liu defeated Jessie Xu and Amy Wang defeated Ivy Pan – a pair of 3-0 USA wins to claim the Gold.  USA wins Gold, Canada wins Silver, Ecuador and Peru each win Bronze.

Lots of quality table tennis on tap all week long.  The doubles are starting today.  Singles finals will be played on Sunday.

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