Jamaica’s Malone Bird made it all the way to the round of 16 in the Boys U-11 Singles category at the Pan American U-11 and U-13 Championships in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic last week.

Bird, after getting through the preliminary group phase, made it through to the round of 16 thanks to a straight-sets win over Puerto Rico’s Caleb Portalatino (11-6, 11-6, 11-9).

His tournament than came to an end after suffering a straight-sets loss (11-6, 11-5, 11-6) at the hands of Brazil’s Joao Ribeiro who went on to lose in the quarterfinals.

The whole thing was won by the USA’s Chirag Pradhan who defeated his countryman Jacob Kordus by three sets to two.

Jamaica also failed to advance from the first round of the U-11 Boys’ doubles as Malone and Shacoil Bird lost in straight-sets to Argentina 11-7, 11-6, 13-11.

President of the Jamaica Table Tennis Association, Ingrid Graham, expressed joy at the performance of the brothers at the tournament.

“Win or lose, they are young and this is priceless exposure for the future. Very close matches and they are right there,” she said.

She also expressed gratitude to a number of sponsors that made it possible for the boys to represent the country in the Dominican Republic.

“We would like to express thanks to the SDF, JOA, OSIL, Sterling Travel, Friends of Table Tennis, Growth Sport and Western Sports for their support to make this possible for these young men to attend these games,” she said.