Francisco Mendez and Richard McAfee

By Francisco Mendez

Saturday July 14th, 6:00 am, Top Spin Table Tennis Center opens, Dennis Driggs starts setting up tables cleaning the floor, leveling the tables, adjusting the nets, getting the groups balanced and finalized, and everything should be ready by 8am.

It is the Top Spin July Round Robin, 24 players attending. It is a multicultural competition, players native of Cameroon, Ghana, China, Vietnam, Laos, Russia, Poland, Espana, Costa Rica, Panama, USA and Japan attended.

Three groups of eight players each: Elite, A division and B division:

Elite
Lee Shapiro (1900) had a very good performance beating Scott Preiss (2027) and Nobuyuki Shiogai (2044) getting the 2nd place.

Scott Preiss

Richard McAfee (2135) finished undefeated, only Scott Preiss pushed him hard to a 5 game (they always go to 5). Nobuyuki Shiogai also went to 5 games with Richard, but lost to Lee and Richard. Scott Preiss got the 3rd place.

Lee Shapiro

A Division
Ariel Sanchez Mora, ((1750) Costa Rica) with his strong serves got the 1st place beating everyone but Dean Chen. Edward Yue, (1734) (Hong Kong) tied Ariel with a 7 to 1 record, but he lost to him in their match, ending up 2nd. Dean Chen 1714 (China) got third losing to Edward and Antonio Varela (Espana).

B Division
One of the greatest things of Table Tennis is the fact that even a match between beginners can be full of passion, intensity and also can be a close and fun match to watch. We focus so much in the advanced and elite players that sometimes we forget about the 1100 and 1200 players. That’s why we recognize the top category winners as well as the lower category winners. Duke Diep (Vietnam) was undefeated, a perfect record 7-0 got him the 1st place. Ade Ade (Cameroon) got the 2nd place losing only to Duke. Mark Flemming (Minnesota) tied with Marilyn Feinstein 4-3 but beat Marilyn in their match and got 3rd place. Marilyn Feinstein is the daughter of Tybie Sommer, a former 1948 World Mixed Doubles Champion! We were so proud to have Tybie at the Center a month ago.

Tybie Sommer

We also had our friend Namsuk Wellman, a former Korean National Team member in the 70’s. Namsuk lives in Cheyenne Wyoming but distance is not an obstacle, Namsuk will start attending Top Spin Center. Welcome back to the greatest sport Namsuk!

Namsuk Wellman and Francisco Mendez

I could not play this time, I just had surgery in my left knee 2 weeks ago, but I’ll be back soon. Thanks to my friends from Butterfly, the best Table Tennis Company in the World. Thanks to all players for playing a great Round Robin competition.

Francisco Mendez

Final Results

Elite:
1st Richard Mcafee
2nd Lee Shapiro
3rd Scott Preiss

A Division:
1st Ariel Sanchez Mora
2nd Edward Yue
3rd Dean Chen

B Division:
1st Duke Dieo
2nd Ade Ade
3rd Mark Flemming