Squash Review Guyana miss out on 13th consecutive title on home turf Buts lots of positives taken from 2017

Jan 06, 2018 Sports, https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...ves-taken-from-2017/

By Sean Devers
After winning the Junior Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Championships title for the last 12 years team Guyana suggested that 13 was indeed an unlucky number as only Taylor Fernandes and Shomari Wilshire won Individual Gold medals as Guyana failed in their bid to successfully defend their title for a 13th time on home soil in a wonderfully organised tournament which was won by Barbados in July.
Fernandes, in her last Caribbean Championships as a junior, beat Bajan Amanda Haywood in the Girls U-19 final, while Wilshire defeated Christopher Anthony in the Boys U-15 final of a tournament which attracted teams from the Cayman Islands, Barbados, Bermuda, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago and in which Guyana finished second.
This was the third time (2003, 2011 & 2017) Guyana has hosted the Junior CASA Championships and this one was expertly organised with Ramon Chan-a-Sue setting up a live website with all the information about the tournament.
“The biggest accomplishment I feel we had was the successful hosting of the Caribbean Junior Championship this year (CASA) held in Guyana. We were able to showcase our country’s hospitality, while fostering sound relationships through high level competition with our Caribbean counterparts,” said President of GSA, Robin Lowe.
Six tournaments were held in Guyana in 2017 while Guyana participated in four international events.
After a 14-year career and two titles, 34-year-old Canadian born Caribbean Squash Queen Nicolette Fernandes retired from the Professional circuit in September after playing in the Digicel Senior Championship last year.
Fernandes won a Gold medal at the 2006 Central American and Caribbean Games before being named 2010 sportswoman of the year after becoming Guyana’s first female to win both the Men’s and Women’s National Championships.
On September 18, 23-year-old National and Regional squash champion, Mary Fung-A-Fat participated in her debut match as a full-time pro at the 2017 Nash Cup tournament in London, Ontario, Canada where she gave a solid account of herself despite dropping her match against her English counterpart.
This was a high point for Guyana’s Squash in a year of a few disappointments such as the other countries, especially Barbados, seemingly doing a better job of developing their pool of junior players than Guyana, especially since Coach Ince is nearing the end of his illustrious Coaching career.
Another positive for Guyana’s Squash last year was talented junior player Shomari Wiltshire playing on the international stage and for the first time in three years, Guyana captured both the men’s and women’s title in the Senior CASA Championship.
The title wins were attained due to a batch of very strong seniors that included, on the female side, Fung-A-Fat, Taylor Fernandes, former national champion Ashley Khalil, Larissa Wiltshire, and Victoria Arjoon.
On the men’s side there were former Caribbean junior champions Jason Ray Khalil and Nyron Joseph and former senior Caribbean champion Richard Chin.
The improved performances in the seniors are due to many of the players who ruled the junior ranks staying in the Sport.
But these strong players becoming over age for the junior category took its toll on the junior division, gradually weakening Guyana’s once invincible junior team, at a time when other countries, particularly Barbados, continue to see strengthening of their junior circuit. Last year Taylor Fernandes and Ben Mekdeci became over age, leaving gaps that will be hard to fill.
“The high for Guyana last year was obviously the success we had at Senior CASA in St. Vincent where we won both Men’s and Women’s titles! I guess you can count the Junior CASA event as the only low point but brought second in that competition so I won’t really call it a “low” for us,” the GSA Head disclosed.
Despite tremendous support from Digicel, Banks DIH, Exxon, Ansa McAl, Bounty Farm and many others sponsors Lowe lamented that the biggest challenge for squash in Guyana is always sponsorship.
“While we have had really good cooperative response from our big sponsors, it’s never enough to cover all the expenses; particularly when we have to travel as a team etc,” Lowe said
But he was quick to add that sponsors that have greatly contributed and the list is testimony to the kind of interest this sport has been generating around the business community.
Talking about his wish list for the New Year Lowe said he would like to see Guyana continue as the Caribbean champions both in the junior and in the senior categories.
“I’d really like to see our names highlighted in the pro circuit as we have Mary Fung-A-Fat now competing in that arena. Mary has an excellent junior career and as a senior she competes with an outstanding record as well; so it would be nice to hear of more Guyanese players ranking high in the world. Nicolette Fernandes did us proud and I’d like to see others follow in her footsteps and perhaps even do better someday,” the GSA Boss said.
Lowe stated that Squash is an incredible sport that deserves all the recognition it can get. “Perhaps the dream would be to see it become an Olympic sport soon and have our Guyanese compete in that competition where we would be amongst the top competitors for sure,” Lowe wishfully stated.
Lowe revealed that the GSA’s planning is in progress as it is early in the year and the Association is in the early stages of their game plan. “We are in position to host the Senior CASA event this year and so that will be one of the major highlights and we will also be competing abroad for the junior title. There are the Commonwealth games in April where four of our best will attend to represent Guyana and the usual local tournaments are also being scheduled,” Lowe explained.
In conclusion Lowe described squash in Guyana as a highly successful sport with outstanding talent that seems to have continuity as the years go by.
“There is increased interest in the sport and more people are playing as well as watching the game locally. We have seen good cooperation between our association and the government entities in improving the facilities that provides for the sport and the local community have contributed in many areas to make and recognize the game as an outstanding one in our country,” the garrulous Sports Administrator concluded.