THE Lopue's Table Tennis Association (Loptta) team of Leonito “Diotay” Lopue shone anew in the recently concluded 7th Flexible Cup International Table Tennis Invitational Championships held at Glorietta, Makati City last March 7 and 8.
Loptta mainstay Marell Lagunday relied on her experience and composure to make an impressive first runner-up finish out of the 16 top women's singles players from all over the country only losing to current national team member Sedrina Balatbat of Tollways in the final.
Lagunday topped her bracket during elimination with a clean slate beating Jannah Romero of Tatand-Manila, current national team member Jamaica Sy of De La Salle University-Taft and former national team member Arlene Arnibal of Makati. She then went on to win against Danica Alboro of University Sto. Tomas and Anta Abas in the quarterfinals and semis, respectively to arrange a final against Balatbat who also upset current women's No. 1 player Yanyan Lariba in the other semis.
Meanwhile, in the tightly contested men's team open event, Loptta team composed of Rodel Valle, Isaias Seronio, Celjun Ortalla and Mark Francis Jimenez took the second runner-up honors after losing in the semis to eventual champion Sunsports-A from Singapore in a decider, 3-2. Huaching team of Cebu represented by Richard Gonzales, Lauro Crisostomo and Glendo Nayre took the silver finished losing to Sunsports-A 2-3 in the championship.
Adidas-Manila team of Michael Dalumpines, Zoren Mendiola, Japhet Adasa and Marcos de Jesus also took the second runner-up honors after losing to Huaching in the other semi-final match.
In the executive singles category, Pastor Hosea Alvarez of Loptta made an impressive run by recording a clean slate in the group stage elimination round defeating Allan Ong of Davao, Peter Lim of Starpaper-Manila and Gabriel Soh of Singapore but fell short against Charlie Lim of Tatand-Manila in a nailbiting decider 3-2 during the semifinal match. Kim from Korea took the championship crown after winning against Lim in the final 3-1.