|
Leibovitz, Fontaine Earn Gold on Day One of U.S. Paralympics Table Tennis Championships
By Marvin Olberding
// U.S. Paralympics
// December 14, 2006
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Tahl Leibovitz (Ozone Park, N.Y.) and Pam Fontaine (Double Oak, Texas) each got off to a great start at the 2006 U.S. Paralympics Table Tennis Championships, winning their respective open class competitions at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Wednesday.
Leibovitz had to come back from a 2-1 deficit to defeat Australian David Moffatt in the finals of the men's open standing class, 11-3, 8-11, 8-11, 11-4, 11-5. In the bronze-medal match, Wayne Lo (Sunnyvale, Calif.) had the opposite happen to him, jumping out to a 2-1 lead but falling in five games to Canada's Ian Kent, 11-7, 6-11, 9-11, 12-10, 11-9.
Fontaine pulled out a four-game victory over Jennifer Johnson (Port Chester, N.Y.) in the finals of the women's open wheelchair division, 11-7, 12-10, 8-11, 11-5. A bid for a U.S. medals sweep in the division was thwarted when Canada's Laurie Sokolowski defeated Carolyn Bethka (Queens, N.Y.), 11-1, 11-7, 11-6.
Action resumes Thursday with class singles action, featuring Leibovitz, Norm Bass (Inglewood, Calif.), Bob Bowlander (Waco, Ga.), Andre Scott (Fort Worth, Texas) and Mitch Seidenfield (Lakeville, Minn.) - all members of the team that represented the U.S. at the 2006 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Table Tennis World Championships.
|
