(by Steve Hopkins, photos by FPTM)

Puerto Rico held a qualifying event this weekend to name the final players for their Men’s and Women’s teams at the 2023 ITTF Pan American Championships which will be held in Havana, Cuba next month.   In posts today by the Puerto Rican Table Tennis Federation (Federación Puertorriqueña de Tenis de Mesa), they announced that the final positions will go to Oscar Birriel and Fabiola Diaz.

Oscar Birriel won the men’s qualifying event that was held Saturday at the Mario Jiménez Recreational Complex in Guaynabo. Oscar will join Brian Afanador, Daniel González and Ángel Naranjo to represent Puerto Rico at the Pan American Championships.  Similarly, Fabiola Diaz won the women’s qualifying event and will now join two sisters on the team, Adriana Diaz and Melanie Diaz, as well as Corozalena Brianna Burgos. 

Puerto Rico expects to be in medal contention in both Men’s and Women’s events.  Their Men’s team has talent from top to bottom with Brian Afanador leading the way at World No. 92 and all three of their other players in 100s in the rankings.  Puerto Rico’s Women’s team is anchored by Adriana Diaz at World No. 13, and while Fabiola winning her way onto the squad at No. 326 is a surprise, Melanie Diaz is World No. 97, and Burgos is at 166 in the rankings.  TeamUSA and Team Brazil are also perennial medal contenders, along with any number of Noth/Central/South American squads.

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