Photo by Whitehorse Star
CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR 鈥� Yukon table tennis champ Ryan Bachli lost in the final of the Alaska-Yukon Challenge to Anchorage's Karl Augestad.
Yukon loses battle of table tennis champions
A good night's sleep before the Alaska-Yukon Challenge men's singles final didn't necessarily do Ryan Bachli much good in Fairbanks last weekend.
A good night's sleep before the Alaska-Yukon Challenge men's singles final didn't necessarily do Ryan Bachli much good in Fairbanks last weekend.
At least, that was the assessment of his table tennis coach, Kevin Murphy this week.
The Yukon's recent table tennis champion dropped the championship game of the series to current Alaskan titleholder Karl Augestad of Anchorage on Saturday.
Friday night's singles competition spilled over into Saturday morning due to time constraints at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where the annual tournament was held.
"Ryan was playing extremely well (Friday),鈥� Murphy told the Star. "He was on a roll. My assessment was that if the final was held Friday night, he would have won. He was a little cold on Saturday morning.鈥�
Bachli dropped the final 2-0 to Augestad, ending the territory's best bid for a title.
The second game went to extra points, where Bachli lost 12-10 after battling back from a 10-6 deficit.
Augestad entered the game with a better ranking than Bachli, and started the game at minus-2.
The tournament featured two divisions of play 鈥� open and novice in both singles and team events.
Yukon 13-year-old Thomas Brenner placed third in the novice singles division.
On Saturday, Abed Rajab and Taras Yurkiv were the only Yukon duo to advance out of their group in the team event.
Murphy and Bachli were eliminated by a tiebreaking formula.
The two beat the eventual champions Augestad and Andrew Kim in round-robin play, but lost to a Fairbanks-based team in the semifinal to finish third.
In the novice team event, Brenner and partner Michael Janssen-Brethal tied for third with Xiu Mei Zhang and partner Jim Zheng.
Murphy said the 13-player contingent from the Yukon had a "fabulous鈥� time at the handicap tournament.
"It's kind of fun and frustrating at the same time,鈥� the coach said of the scoring system aimed at achieving parity between all opponents.
The handicap system usually induced longer games.
Next year, the event will be held here in Whitehorse.
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