First Pan American Youth Championships 

and North American Youth Training Camp

Ft. Lauderdale, FL • June 26-July 1, 2002
By Teodor “Doru” Gheorghe, U.S. Women’s Team Coach 

	U.S. Junior Boys’ Team: Coach Mark Nordby, Jared Lynch, Mark Hazinski, Han Xiao. (Missing: Coach Dan Seemiller.) Photo by Diego Schaaf, care of Alpha Table Tennis, copyright 2002.
	U.S. Junior Girls’ Team: Coach Bill Lui, Sophia Dan Dan Yi, Katherine Wu, Jackie Lee, Whitney Ping, Coach Doru Gheorghe. Photo by Diego Schaaf, care of Alpha Table Tennis, copyright 2002.

The first Pan American Youth Championship was organized by USATT at the same venue as the U.S. Open/ITTF Pro Tour, June 26-28, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Players from 12 Latin American countries, Canada and USA competed in four singles categories (under 22, 18, 15 and 13), and two team categories (under 22 and under 15). Both boys and girls events were held.

USA’s top twelve girls (Jackie Lee, Whitney Ping, Katherine Wu, Elaine Kwok, Sophia Dan Dan Yi, Laura Xiao, Wendy Eav, Minh Than Nguyen, Atha Fong, Judy Hugh, Sarah Zheng, Barbara Wei) and top eight boys (Mark Hazinski, Han Xiao, Jared Lynch, Adam Hugh, Misha Kazantsev, Sergy Gutkin, John Leach, Joseph Cochran) represented USA. They won five gold medals, four silver and five bronze medals. The USA medallists were:

The Pan Am Youth tournament was a good opportunity for our juniors and cadets to compete against other players with different playing styles. Also, since it was organized on U.S. soil, more USA juniors had the chance to play in this international tournament than if we had to send them oversees.

For coaches, the tournament was a good opportunity to see were we are with our players within the Pan Am continents, and evaluate our chances in future Pan Am Games. Having a Pan Am Games for adult players but a lack of international competitions for juniors, we should study the possibility of organizing this tournament in the future. Coaches from Latin America approached me with the idea of organizing this competition in the future and having other joint training camps.

Following the Pan Am Youth Championship, USATT organized the North American Youth Training Camp, which is part of the ITTF Continental Development program for North American countries. The Camp was held at the same venue, June 29 -July 1.  We had eight boys and nine girls from USA, five boys and four girls from Canada, and 24 boys and 18 girls from Latin American countries (Brazil, Chile, Honduras, Guatemala, Peru, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Barbados and Columbia).

We had four head coaches: Teodor Gheorghe, USA Women’s Team; Jean Baptiste Bertrand, National High Performance Center in Montreal; Dan Seemiller, USA Men’s Team; and Martin Marle, Brazil Men’s Team Coach in charge with coordination of Latin American players.  Twelve other coaches from USA, Canada and Latin America attended the Camp.

During the three days of the camp we had 12 sessions, 2.5 hours each, with separate sessions for boys and girls, with all players doing two sessions per day. The camp went very well and the players responded in a positive way, working very hard and with responsible attitudes.

For USA players, this was a good opportunity to train with a large variety of partners with different playing styles, getting used to high-quality training sessions, and making new friends.

The coaches and players concluded that the camp was very well organized and are looking forward to returning for another one. The Pan American Youth Championships and the Camp were very useful for our players.

I would like to thank the players and the coaches that attended the camp for their hard work and positive attitudes, and I hope we will have more opportunities like this to work together. 

Under 22 Men’s Teams

1. Brazil

2. Canada

3. USA

4. Peru

5. Barbados

6. Chile

7. Dominican Republic

8. El Salvador

9. Guyana

10. Guatemala

11. Mexico

Under 16 Boys’ Teams

1. USA

2. El Salvador

3. Dominican Republic

4. Peru

5. Barbados

6. Guyana

Under 22 Women’s Teams

1. Brazil

2. USA

3. Canada

4. Chile

5. Peru

6. Barbados

7. Guyana

8. Mexico

Under 16 Girls’ Teams

1. USA #1

2. USA #2

3. Barbados

Under 22 Men’s Singles

1. Thiago Farias Monteiro (BRA)

2. Jose Ramirez-Marin (GUA)

3. Hugo Hanashiro (BRA)

4. Anson Bispham (CAN)

5. Mauricio Enrique Grande (ESA)

6. Francis Munoz (DOM)

7. Dennis Yi (PER)

8. Mark-Anthony Dowell (BAR)

9. Shadrach Reuben Maxius (BAR)

10. Milton Garcia (MEX)

Under 18 Boys’s Singles

1. Cazuo Matsumoto (BRA)

2. Mark Hazinski (USA)

3. Daniel Alagao (BRA)

4. Han Xiao (USA)

5. Carlos Olea (CHI)

6. Ignacio Cabrera (CAN)

7. Kevin Farley (BAR)

8. Juan Pablo Koo (PER)

9. Jared Lynch (USA)

10. Aluko Bascombe (BAR)

Under 15 Boys’ Singles

1. Adam Hugh (USA)

2. Guo Peng (CAN)

3. Pierre-Luc Hinse (CAN)

4. Felipe Monita (BRA)

5. Ciancarlo Cerna (PER)

6. Michael Ulatowski (CAN)

7. Anderson Carrington (BAR)

8. Mario Alejandro Martinez (ESA)

9. Misha Kazantsev (USA)

10. Radhames Diaz (DOM)

Under 13 Boys’ Singles

1. Juan Antonio Vila (DOM)

2. Zach Bonsalves (GUY)

3. Sergy Gutkin (USA)

4. Jade Padmore (BAR)

5. Josue Ernesto Donado 

6. John Leach (USA)

7. Edgar Espinal (DOM)

8. Joseph Cochran (USA)

9. Miguel Delgado (GUA)

10. Frankz Kastner (PER)

Under 22 Women’s Singles

1. Ligia Silva (BRA)

2. Erica Pilon (CAN)

3. Marie-Christine Roussy (CAN)

4. Izzawa Medi Bueso (HON)

5. Nicole Alleyne (BAR)

Under 18 Girls’ Singles

1. Jackie Lee (USA)

2. Wennin Chiu (CAN)

3. Whitney Ping (USA)

4. Katherine Wu (USA)

5. Gaudalaup Sanchez (PER)

6. Paulina Vega (CHI)

7. Marisol Delzo (PER)

8. Elaine Kwok (USA)

9. Nathalia Barreira (BRA)

10. Claudia Ikeizumi (BRA)

Under 15 Girls’ Singles

1. Mariany Nonaka (BRA)

2. Sara Yuen (CAN)

3. Sophia Dan Dan Yi (USA)

4. Laura Xiao (USA)

5. Wendy Eav (USA)

6. Sherrice Felix (BAR)

7. Minh Thar Nguyen (USA)

8. Tara Burrowes (BAR)

Under 13 Girls’ Singles

1. Atha Fong (USA)

2. Judy Hugh (USA)

3. Sarah Zheng (USA)

4. Barbara Wei (USA)

5. Sarah Rosas (MEX)

6. Mirella Delzo (PER)

7. Michelle John (GUY)

8. Aura Ocampo (COL)

9. Malissa Howard (BAR)