Six members of the U.S. Paralympics Table Tennis team won singles class medals at the 2007 Parapan American Games. The team hauled in two medals of each color on day three of competition.

Tahl Leibovitz (Ozone Park, N.Y.) and Michael Seidenfeld (Lakeville, Minn.) have the shimmering gold medals slung around their necks. Pamela Fontaine (Double Oak, Texas) and Noga Nir-Kistler (Allentown, Penn.) earned the silver medals, while Norman Bass (Inglewood, Calif.) and Wayne Lo (Sunnyvale, Calif.) both won bronze.

Seidenfeld breezed to the gold in the men’s class 7, defeating Brazil’s Francisco Lima 11-4, 11-5, 11-5 for a three-game sweep. His passport to the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games was stamped by a 5-0 finish in class singles competition.

“He will be a medal contender in Beijing in class 7,” U.S. Paralympics Table Tennis Head Coach Sean O’Neill (Portland, Ore.) said of Seidenfeld.

Leibovitz likewise trounced his men’s class 8 singles competition, sweeping each of his four opponents. He defeated Canada’s Ian Kent 11-5, 11-9, 11-6 to secure his second gold medal of the Parapan Am Games, with the first coming in the men’s open.

“Right now he’s on track to duplicate the last two Pan Am Games, with three gold, three gold and three gold medals,” O’Neill said.

Although Leibovitz enthroned his class, he did not receive a guaranteed ticket to Beijing next summer. He was moved up a class after singles play had already begun, forcing him to remain in class 8 and hope for a gold medal to boost his world ranking points.

Aside from Seidenfeld, the rest of the team will join Leibovitz at tournaments in the near future in hopes of accruing enough ranking points to qualify for Beijing. Fontaine and Nir-Kistler nearly secured the coveted gold berths to China, falling just short in the medal finals.

“The girls played their hearts out,” O’Neill said. “They both did everything they could. Their first Pan Ams and they both win silver in their class.”

Fontaine went 4-2 in women’s wheelchair class 3 play, losing to Zamora Silva of Cuba in the gold medal match. Nir-Kistler won three matches and lost one in women’s wheelchair class 5, with Mexico’s Maria Paredes taking the gold.

Lo fought to a five-game win in the men’s class 8 bronze medal match, finishing singles competition with a 4-1 record. Bass beat teammate Edward Levy (Portland, Ore.) in the men’s class 7 bronze medal match.

Stuart Caplin (Orange Park, Fla.) and Andre Scott (Fort Worth, Texas) both finished 3-1 in men’s wheelchair class 5 play, with their losses coming in the quarterfinals. Scott stumbled against the eventual gold medal victor.

The U.S. players will now combine forces against the top table tennis racketeers in the Americas, with team play beginning today. The pairs are: Bass, Levy and Seidenfeld, men’s class 7; Caplin and Scott, men’s wheelchair class 5; Leibovitz and Lo, men’s class 8; and Fontaine and Nir-Kistler, women’s wheelchair class 3.

Doubles play is a chance for the Americans to not only get on the medal stand a few more times, but seek retribution from the competitors they lost to in singles.

“They’ll have teams to get revenge against some of the players that they played today,” O’Neill said of his athletes.

U.S. medal count:
Tahl Leibovitz (Ozone Park, N.Y.), gold, men’s class 8
Leibovitz, gold, men’s open
Mitchell Seidenfeld (Lakeville, Minn.), gold, men’s class 7
Pamela Fontaine (Double Oak, Texas), silver, women’s wheelchair class 3
Noga Nir-Kistler (Allentown, Penn.), silver, women’s wheelchair class 5
Norman Bass (Inglewood, Calif.), bronze, men’s class 7
Wayne Lo (Sunnyvale, Calif.), bronze, men’s class 8

Aug. 16 U.S. doubles schedule:
Fontaine/Nir-Kistler vs. Brazil, 9 a.m.
Leibovitz/Lo vs. Chile, 9 a.m.
Bass/Levy/Seidenfeld vs. Uruguay, 11 a.m.
Caplin/Scott vs. Argentina, 3 p.m.