BOTH national men’s and women’s table tennis champions Kane Watson and Yvonne Foster played unbeaten in the final trials for international duty at the Excelsior Auditorium on Saturday.

At the end of the trials, a squad of six men and seven women were chosen to begin preparation for a chance to represent Jamaica at upcoming international table tennis tournaments beginning with the World Team Championships that will be played in the months of April/May, the Commonwealth Games in July, and the Caribbean Table Tennis Championships to be played later in the year.

Of the original 12 men invited by the Jamaica Table Tennis Association (JTTA) to participate in the trials, only eight showed up and 10 of the 11 women.

Former nation champions Peter Moo Young and Joseph Dibbs, along with Don Walker-Petinaud were among the men absent, but coach Stephen Grant was not too disappointed with the turnout.

“I think I saw enough from those who attended and came to work. And for this I am heartened. The women at this point are showing a fair amount of ability, but would have work much harder to get themselves to the stage where they will begin to project the type of cutting edge approach that is required to become competitive at the international level.” In his assessment of what transpired, Grant singled out Shenique Clare as a budding prospect to go far with greater commitment.

Clare finished third in the trial with an 8-2 aggregate finish. Her aggregate finish was comparable to that of second-placed finisher Kadian Carney at 8-2, but Clare, by virtue of having lost to Carney in match play, finished third.

In response to the coach’s observation, Clare said that she was aware of the fact that she was not at her best, but in an act of self preservation was doing just enough to get by for fear of the peril of working at the fitness question too soon, may cause her to end up ruining her chances of getting into the squad.

“The problem,” Clare explained, “is that I suffer from shin splints and did not want to go all out before the trial and risk not being able to participate fully.

“With the trial behind me, I can now begin to address the fitness issue by using various forms of curative exercises as there are two months still to go before the Worlds begin.”

The men’s squad that selected itself comprises Watson, Simon Tomlinson, Christopher Marsh, Dale Parham, Alphanso Morris and Phillip Drummond, while the women’s squad comprises Foster, Carney, Clare, Deidre Lewis, Andrea Wadsworth, Ashli Alexander and Petrina Bogle.