2003 Pan Am Games - Women

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic · Aug. 7-13, 2003

By USA Women’s Coach Teodor “Doru” Gheorghe

The USA Women's Team poses with USA's Aly Salam (ITTF Continental Vice President for North America). Photo by Bob Fox ©2003.

In order to get to the Pan Am Games, all team members met in Tampa, Florida on August 2 for team processing, where USOC had our Pan Am outfits for us.

Two days before the departure date, Lupulesku informed me that he had been injured playing soccer on concrete and the doctor told him that he was not supposed to practice for a month. I contacted the USOC in Santo Domingo, and sent all the necessary paperwork in order to replace Lupulesku with De Tran. Unfortunately, the organizing committee didn’t approve because the deadline to make any replacements was July 27 and Lupulesku informed me on July 31.

Due to bad weather Lily Yip and David Zhuang arrived in Tampa on August 3 and left Tampa, one day later, accompanied by Men’s Coach Dan Seemiller. 

We arrived in Santo Domingo on August 3 after a 2-hour flight. USOC reps waited for us at the airport, and helped us go through customs and passport control and drive us to the Pan Am village. 

We had three days for a short camp and to get used to the playing hall and the heat.  We had air conditioning in our rooms, dining room and buses, but not in the playing hall.  Not having air condition in the playing hall and an open ceiling made the playing conditions really tough.

The tournament started on August 7 with doubles. Gao Jun/Jasna Reed were seeded first and Tawny Banh/Lily Yip second.

Gao Jun/Jasna Reed defeated, in the first round, Valdez/Bejaran (DOM) 4-0; in the second round Medina I/Medina Z (HON) 4-1; and in the semifinals Ramos/Perez (VEN) 4-0.

Tawny Banh/Lily Yip defeated, in the first round, Fernandes/Murashige (BRA) 4-0; in the second round Silva/Ferrer (CUB) 4-0; and in the semifinals Wu/Vila (DOM) 4-0.  

Women's Doubles Gold Medalists Jasna Reed & Gao Jun (USA) wave to the crowd. Photo by Bob Fox ©2003.

Final:  Gao Jun/Jasna Reed won against Tawny Banh/Lily Yip.  First game Tawny/Lily played very well, with Lily making almost all the shots on the table. The next four games Gao/Jasna start getting control and won, 7,6,10,7.

The first stage of the single events was played in round robin groups of 4-5 players. 

Gao Jun was seeded first and she won her group by defeating Gomez (PER) 4-0, Morell (CHI) 4-0, and Medina (HON) 4-1.

Tawny Banh, seeded second, won her group, winning against Ramirez (ESA) 4-0, Bereau (CUB) 4-1, Gonzales (PER) 4-0, and Nonaka (BRA) 4-0.

Lily Yip, seeded third, won her group, defeating Murashige (BRA) 4-0, Moseley (BAR) 4-1, Ramos (VEN) 4-0, and Tepes (CHI) 4-1.

Jasna Reed, seeded sixth, won her group, defeating Ceron (CHI) 4-3, Wang (ESA) 4-0, Gonzales (CUB) 4-0, and Silva (BRA) 4-0.

In the second stage of the tournament Gao was seeded first, Tawny second.  Because of the new Pan Am rule, which says that players from the same country should play together in the quarterfinals, Lily Yip was drawn in the quarterfinals against Gao, and Tawny against Jasna.

All four USA players had byes in the first round.  In the second round Gao played Silva (CUB) and she won 4-0 (6,2,1,4).  In the second round she defeated Ramos (VEN) 4-0 (4,2,2,5).  In the semifinals she defeated Rodriguez (CHI) 4-0 (5,2,3,11).

Lily lost in the second round to Ramos (VEN) 4-3. She was up 3-2 and 4-1 in the sixth game and she lost the game in deuce, and the seventh game 11-3.

Jasna beat Espineira (PER) 4-1 (4,-9,4,6,9) but she lost in the quarterfinals to Tawny after a very spectacular match (-9,3,-12,9,9,-9,-8).

Tawny defeated Medina (HON) 4-2 (6,7,-6,12,-6,8) in the second round. Medina was very wild but a very good fighter.  In the quarterfinals Tawny won against Jasna, but lost in the semifinals against Wu (DOM), 4-1 (-4,-9, 7,-5,-5).  Wu is a Chinese player who was naturalized this year in the Dominican Republic.  

USA's Gao Jun serves in the Women's Singles Final against Dominican Republic's Wu Xue. Gao Wins!!! Photo by John Ruger/USOC ©2003.

The final was between Gao and Wu Xue (DOM).  In the first game Gao led 6-2. Wu came back 7-7, but Gao won the game, 11-9.  In the second, Gao started very well and kept the advantage to the end to win 11-8.  In the third, Wu started playing very aggressively and surprised Gao.  It was 8-2 for Wu. Gao came back to 8-7, and then the Dominican Republic coach called time out.  After that Wu, again playing aggressive, making two good shots.  Down 10-7 Gao missed a forehand smash.  In the fourth game Gao started with a 4-0 lead, but Wu caught up at 7-7.  They went head to head till 9-9 when Wu had the serve and finished with two very nice forehand smashes.  In the fifth game Gao started 6-2 and kept the lead till the end; she won the game 11-6.  In the sixth game Gao started 3-1 but Wu caught up, took the lead and won the game 11-5.  The seventh game Gao started 4-2, 5-3 and Wu came to 5-5 when I called a time out.  Considering the circumstances I had to ask Gao to play more aggressive, which is not her normal style.  I knew she could do it and that it was her best chance to win because Wu was now used to her pips and soft blocking game. Gao started to play very aggressive, surprised Wu with her attacks and she won 11-7.

Overall the Women’s team won two gold medals, one silver, and one bronze.  The tournament was especially difficult due to the playing conditions, the heat, the wind in the hall and the spectators.  During the final, 1500 people were cheering for Wu, which put great pressure on Gao.

I would like to thank the women for the team spirit and really good fight that they put up.  I would also like to thank the whole USA delegation for being such a good Team. 

The organizers were very nice and friendly, they did the best they could to make the Pan Am Games a success.  We had the opportunity to visit the Presidential Palace and meet with the President of the Dominican Republic. The President’s son, Ramon, thinks table tennis is fun and supports the development of table tennis in this country.  We would like to thank Ramon for giving us the opportunity to visit the Presidential Palace and the Residential Palace.  We really enjoyed the time spent in the Dominican Republic.