Edouard Valenet Imperial and Eljey Dan Tormis booked slots in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games following their impressive performance in the Philippine Table Tennis Federation Inc. National Selection 2023 in Puerto Princesa City recently.
Imperial and Tormis emerged as top performers in the selection to make it to the national team for the first time, with women players Kheith Rhynne Cruz, Angelou Joyce Lauden, Rose Jean Fadol, and Sendrina Andrea Balatbat also clinching spots for the biennial meet to be held in Cambodia.
Richard Gonzales and John Russel Misal are already seeded in the national team following their silver medal in the doubles competition of the Hanoi SEA Games, while Jann Mari Nayre and Emy Rose Dael are also seeded and is currently training in Europe.
Imperial got one of the spots after the Filipino-French finished with a 9-1 win-loss record in the third and final round of the selection, while Tormis, a 19-year-old product of the Hua Ching Foundation of philanthropist Bill Yap in Mandaue, Cebu, placed second with an 8-2 win-loss mark.
Cruz went undefeated in the third round of the women’s division with a 12-0 mark, followed by Laude (11-1), Fadol (9-3), and Balatbat (8-4) following a rigorous selection process.
The National Selection began with all players, 31 in the men’s division and 30 in the women’s side, being grouped and play a single round-robin, with the group winners advancing to the next round.
All group winners were bracketed into four for another single round-robin with the top two in each group making it to the third and final round where they play another set of round-robin this time with the one national player from the men and three from the women included.
