Team Guyana are Junior CASA Champs!

See tournament website for details.

Guyana made a clean sweep of the team titles when the 31st Junior Caribbean Squash Championships concluded at the Cascadia Courts in Trinidad on Sunday.

junior 2013 champsGuyana Girls’ team won its eighth consecutive team title and the country won its ninth consecutive overall team title.  In the Girls’ team final, Rebecca Low went up against Alyssa Mullings, the Caribbean Under-15 champion. Low was no match for Mullings and went down in straight sets. In match two, Makeda Harding came up against Mira Handa. Harding had lost to Handa in the individual tournament three games to love, but on this occasion she was all fired up.  Harding won the first game before Handa took the second, with Guyanese taking the third. However, Handa dug deep and won the fourth and fifth games. With Harding leading nine points to eight, the victory was still within her grasp, but Handa won the next three points and the match 3-2.  Guyana Girls’ captain, Victoria Arjoon defeated Jessica Perkins 3-0. Gabby Fraser also defeated Michelle-Ann Denton 3-0.   It eventually came down to the Under-17 Girls’ to decide who would win the title and Guyanese Akeila Wiltshire blew out Ashley Lynch 3-0.

In the Boys’ team final, Ben Mekdeci, the best U-15 player at the tournament, comfortably disposed of Tahjia Lumley in straight sets. Guyana’s Shomari Wiltshire then beat Adam Ardito 3-1. Further, Jean Claude Jeffrey won a hard-fought game against Caribbean Under-19 champion Ashante Smith, beating him 3-2 to secure the title for Guyana. Guyanese Steven Xavier beat Julian Morrison 3-0 while his compatriot Nyron Joseph defeated Jake Mahfood 2-0.

In an invited comment after the victory, president of the Guyana Squash Association (GSA), David Fernandes, said he was extremely proud of the players’ performance.

“I’m extremely proud of the young players. Before every match we spoke of them giving 110 percent and they did just that. They never gave up, they did very well. It’s really an amazing and proud feeling,” Fernandes stated.

Fernandes said the success of the team did not come as a surprise since the players had put in a lot of training prior to the championship. He lauded the youngsters for their discipline and work ethic, noting that the Guyanese are “unmatched in the Caribbean” when it comes to those areas of their game.

While he heaped praises on all the players, Fernandes was particularly impressed with the performance of nine year-old Shomari Wiltshire, who placed third in the individual competition and won all his team matches.

(Article by Guyana Times)

Barbados are 2012 Senior CASA Champs!

Barbados are the Caribbean squash champions for the third successive year.Squash_champions_2012

All three Barbados teams won their respective ties on the final day of the 20th annual Caribbean Squash Championships at the Cascadia Squash Courts in Trinidad on Saturday.

Two of those ties were finals as the women’s team and the veterans’ squad both retained their team titles, while the men’s team finished third, one better than last year.

In the tense women’s final, the No. 2 seeded Barbados toppled the top ranked from Guyana 4-1, with three of the matches going the full distance to five games.

Fifteen-year-old Gylla Mackenzie, playing on the senior Barbados team for the first time, defeated Tiffany Solomon 3-2 to start the ball rolling for Team Barbados.

Nadia McCarthy played the match of her life, and saved three match balls in the fourth game before taking that game to a tie break against Guyana’s Victoria Arjoon before confidently taking the fifth to win 3-2.

In the No. 1 string position, Guyana’s Caribbean individual champion Nicolette Fernandes pulled one back by defeating Barbados’ Karen Meakins three straight games in a repeat of the individual final.

Alex Jordan sealed the victory for Barbados by confidently outplaying Guyana’s Ashley DeGroot 3-1.

Cheri-Ann Parris put the icing on the cake by overcoming reigning Caribbean Under-19 champion Mary Fung-a-Fat 3-2.

The Barbados Vets team pulled off a close 3-2 victory over Trinidad and Tobago while the men’s team comfortably defeated the OECS 4-1 to place third.

In the overall team championships, Barbados placed first for the third successive year, with Trinidad and Tobago placing second and Guyana third.

Trinidad and Tobago won the men’s team final, defeating Guyana in a pulsating contest.