BACOLODNON veteran paddler Johnard Baldonado, who is based in Las Vegas, Nevada, recently topped the United States Table Tennis Association (USATT) ranking for full-time hardbat players against sponge.
Baldonado has 2,245 points followed by Franz-Josef Huermann (2,232), Steve Berger (2,230), Noel Huerman (2,133) and Ty Hoff (2,110) – completing the Top 5.
The Filipino paddler, who moved to US in 2008, has placed the Philippines in the headlines after winning the Hardbat Championships US Table Tennis title in 2010, and later represented United States in the World Championship of Ping Pong in London three years ago.
Baldonado, a former 4th Congressional District table tennis coordinator and chief administrative officer of Bacolod Christian College of Negros, said that in spite of being inactive for the past two years he was able to make it to the top.
“Right now, I’m preparing for the 19th World Veteran Championship Table Tennis Tournament this June,” he said.
The event, which will be staged at the Las Vegas Convention Center, is governed by the International Table Tennis Federation.
It is the largest table tennis tournament in the world which has recorded the most number of participants of 4,600 paddlers during the 2016 WVC held in Spain.
This year, around 5,000 players from 82 countries are expected to participate. (HGD)