Sisters team up for table tennis gold

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This article was published 16/08/2023 (1129 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the first time in nearly 30 years, a female provincial table tennis team took home gold at the Junior Canadian National Championships in Drummondville, QC, last month.

Sisters Alexus and Victoria Lee and Samantha Belches made up the team that went undefeated and won the U15 Jr. National title.

Playing on the same team was a nice change of pace for the Lee sisters who often compete against one another when practising.

“I do like winning against my sister, because I mean it’s fun,” said Victoria.

Her sister also enjoys their matchups and says it can get heated from time to time.

“It’s fun and sometimes I get a little competitive,” said Alexus.

In table tennis team events, two to four players make up a team. A squad must beat their opponent in three out of five matches in order to win the matchup. The order of the best of five is two singles matches followed by a doubles then one or two more singles matches if needed. The same player cannot play back to back singles matches.

While Manitoba had not won this team event in a number of years, they were seeded first going into the national tournament. The top seed was a result of all three players ranking very highly in Table Tennis Canada’s player rankings. The eldest sister, Victoria, currently ranks fourth in Canada in the U15 category and Alexus who is two years younger ranks third in the U13 division, and seventh in U15. Belches is not far behind them, currently sitting at 15th in the U15 rankings.

The top seed did come with some pressure to perform and both sisters did feel that burden to some degree.

“We were seeded top in our division going into the competition so we were kind of expected to win, I guess,” said Alexus. “We just wanted to go there and play our best and see what happens.”

“Its a team event, our plan was just to play and have fun,” said Victoria.

Victoria added that before the tournament she was curious how her competition had developed since the last national event. While rankings can provide somewhat of a guide as to who’s supposedly the best, Victoria said that it’s tough to tell until you see the competition first hand.

“I was ready to see everyone again, because we haven’t seen the other players(outside Manitoba) the whole year,… since we improved, I wondered how much they improved as well,” she said.

Manitoba started off smoothly beating Saskatchewan and BC without dropping a single match. Then came the big test, powerhouse Ontario. Manitoba dropped the first two singles matches against their eastern rival, and needed to win both the doubles and last two singles matches to keep their golden dreams alive.

Alexus and Victoria, having both lost their singles matches, rallied to win the doubles and keep their chances alive. They each went on to win their following singles matches to complete the comeback. Manitoba would defeat Quebec later that day and go a perfect 4-0 in the round-robin style tournament and take home first place.

“I was very happy and ecstatic,… I’m glad all our hard work paid off,” said Alexus of winning the gold.

While the spotlight should certainly be placed on the three young ladies that won gold, Manitoba head coach Arvin Tronco also deserves praise. In a team event such as this one, coaches decide which athletes will compete in which matches. Lots of time and thought goes into these decisions.

“It’s like a chess match,” said Tronco. “As a coach you need to know the strengths and weaknesses of your players.”

Each Manitoba player had a specific skill set, and it was Tronco and his coaching staff’s job to best use each player’s particular talents in the right situation.

“Victoria plays more with spins,… Alexus uses more speed,… Samantha is a very tricky one, she uses different rubbers which gives her an advantage against other teams if they don’t know how to play her kind of style,” said Tronco.

Both Victoria and Alexus are looking forward to competing for Manitoba in the 2027 Canada Winter Games in Quebec City, where they hope to stand atop the podium in la belle province once again.

donald.stewart@freepress.mb.ca