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ON WEDNESDAY night, action in the 2012 World Cadet Challenge came to a close in the team competition at the University of Guam Field House.

However, before a champion was crowned in the boys’ division, the top four teams battled it out earlier in the day for the right to move on. Team Asia defeated Latin America, while Europe defeated World Hopes in the semis to set up the final stage.

Both Asia and Europe gave everyone in attendance much to cheer about as they put forth an intense title match. However, at the end of the night, it was Asia that matched their female counterparts by defeating Europe (3-1) to claim the championship.

If the opening game between both teams was going to be any indication of how the other matches will be, then all was in for a lot of excitement. Kicking things off was Europe's Patryk Zatowka and Asia's Xu Song. The two boys duked it out in five intense sets that came down to extra points to decide a winner.

Song took the opening set after defeating Zatowka 11-8. However, Zatowka returned the favor to even things up after an 8-11 win. The heated battle continued, only this time Song upped his lead after cruising to an 11-3 third set win. Not ready to retire his match, Zatowka forced a fifth and final set after taking the 7-11 win in the fourth.

The final set became a see-saw battle as neither was able to take full control of the match. Late in the match, both competitors forced extra points with the scored knotted at 10-10. Asia's Song buckled down and scored two straight to give his team a one-point lead.

Asia continued to move on cruise control as Kohei Sambe defeated Anton Kallberg 7-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-5 to give his team a 2-0 lead and pull within a match of claiming gold. In another tough match, Europe put a brief halt to the celebration of an Asia championship. Bence Majoros fought effortlessly to defeat Seungmin Cho in five sets.

Sambe returned to the tables in the fourth match to take on Europe's Zatowka. Not willing to let Europe back in the door, Sambe dismantled his opponent in straight sets 11-5, 11-9, 11-3 giving Asia the 2012 boys’ team title.

Consolation match

Despite battling in two five-set matches, the World Hopes had some difficulty against a very tough Latin America team. Needing only three matches, Latin America defeated their opponents 3-0 to take home third place.


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