National badminton player Renaldo Sinanan was the lone bright spot for T&T on Thursday, the opening day of the Male and Female Pan Am Team Continental Championships which is ongoing at the National Racquet Centre, Orange Grove Road in Tacarigua.
In the evening programme, Sinanan registered the only win, a 2-1 triumph over American Ryan Chew when T&T men's team faced the United States in Group B. However, the host went under 4-1 in the evening session following the opening ceremony. This followed T&T's 5-0 loss to Jamaica earlier in the day.
The national women's team had no better luck as it too suffered a 5-0 defeat to Guatemala in its opening match on court two.
Over on court four, Sinanan didn't have the best of starts in his singles match, losing the first set to the USA challenger, 19-21, but he bounced back in the second set to level the contest with a 21-14 score. He then took the deciding set 21-19, over Chew in a match which lasted 52 minutes.
However, in the doubles match where he partnered with five-time national champion Anil Seepaul against USA's Ricky Liuzhou and Calvin Lin, the local pair was defeated, 2-0 (21-9, 21-9).
Their T&T teammates Nathaniel Khilliwan and Naim Mohammed were also on the losing end in their doubles match-up against Phillip Chew and Ryan Chew, going down, 2-0 (21-9, 21-10).
In their respective singles matches, Khilliwan lost to Sattawat Pongnairat, 2-0 (21-6, 21-9) and Mohammed went under to Liuzhou by the same 2-0 (21-18, 21-9) margin.
Also in Group B, Jamaica defeated Dominican Republic, 4-1 on court three while on court five in Group A, Peru topped Barbados, 5-0.
In the women's singles competition against the Guatemalans in Group A, Nekeisha Blake was defeated by Alejandra Quan, 2-0 (21-16, 21-17); Avril Marcelle lost to Diana Soto, 21-13, 21-8 and Kerian Quan Chee failed against Mariana Quan, 21-8, 21-13.
As the programme continued there was no improvement for the local women players. In doubles play, the combination of Blake and Quan Chee lost to Soto and M Quan, 21-12, 21-13 and Marcelle and Latoya Walrond were beaten by A Quan and Ana Cordon, 2-0 (21-17, 21-7).
In the lone match in Group A, Peru earned an easy two points after scoring a walkover victory over Dominican Republic.
Last evening both the local teams were scheduled to compete, the men against Dominican Republic and the women versus the Unites States. Action continues today.