CASA Junior Championships 2023: Guyana on course to retain overall title

Guyana is on course to retain the overall title at the ongoing Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Junior Championships, having already secured a number of individual medals, which speaks volumes of the current vein of form of the Guyanese team heading into the Team and Doubles segments of the tournament in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
The Guyanese team, which last year got hands on the overall championship for the first time since 2015 – after surrendering the 2017 and 2019 editions to Barbados –are now hunting a 14th overall lien on the crown.
They once enjoyed a streak of 12-consecutive wins, which was ended by the Barbadians, but if their form is anything to go by thus far, they are on the verge of starting another streak.
Guyana have so far secured individual gold medals through Nicholas Verwey in the boys’ under-19 championship; Louis Da Silva in the boys’ under-17 championship; and Avery Arjoon in the girls’ under-15 championship.
Kaylee Lowe, in the girls’ under-13; Mohryan Baksh, in the boys’ under-17; and Kirsten Gomes, in the girls’ under-19 categories have all secured silver medals; while Ethan Bulkan, in the boys’ under-11; Justin Ten Pow, in the boys’ under-13; and Michael Alphonso, in the boys’ under-19 categories have each added a bronze medal to the country’s tally.
The individual finals got under way with Bermuda’s Mason Smith and Benjamin Sherratt snaring gold and silver in the boys’ under-11 category, following contrasting victories of Savante Padmore and Ethan Bulkan of the host nation. Mason bettered Padmore in three sets: 11-3, 11-0, 11-3, while Sherratt required four sets to get past Bulkan.
After losing the first set 11-8, Sherratt recovered to win the next three 11-9, 11-3 and 11-5 in a match that lasted 28 minutes. Smith and Sherratt then each required 23 minutes to settle business among themselves, with the former winning 16-14, 11-8, 11-7.
The boys’ under-13 category was topped by Barbadian Ben Shepherd, who stamped his class in an 18-minute contest against US Virgin Islands’ Ethan Mohamed. He posted comfortable 11-1, 11-5 and 11-3 wins, while Ten Pow registered 11-5, 11-6, 11-8 against Levi Jack in the third-place encounter.
The host nation was not to be outdone in the boys’ under-15 category, which was won by Jayden George, who scored a three-set win over Bermuda’s Owen Rosorea 11-5, 11-3, 11-1. Daniel Sealy of Barbados won the third-place contest 11-4, 11-2, 11-8 over Charlie Makin of Bermuda.
After enduring two highly competitive semi-final contests against Vincentian Jaydon Williams and Andrew Cox of Bermuda, Da Silva and Baksh battled in a pulsating boys’ under-17 final. Da Silva won the almost hour-long four-set showpiece 17-15, 9-11, 11-4, 11-7.
Prior to that, he defeated Williams in five sets 6-11, 11-13, 11-9, 11-8, 11-7 in a 54-minute-long match, while Baksh was comfortable 15-13, 11-4, 11-5 victor over Cox in less than half an hour.
Verwey was also comfortable in victory in the boys’ under-19 gold medal match in which he bettered Barbadian Alex Stewart in straight sets 12-10, 11-1, 11-6.
Alphonso, who lost his semi-final contest to Stewart, bounced back to defeat British Virgin Islands’ Jace Jervis, who had earlier succumbed to Verwey in the third-place match. Alphonso won the five-set encounter 12-10, 11-7, 11-7, after losing the first two sets 13-15, 8-11.
On the girls’ side of action, Trinidad and Tobago’s Gia Ghuran won the under-11 gold medal following a 14-minute 11-5, 11-7, 11-5 win over Delilah Grace Pease of British Virgin Island, while Bermuda’s Taylor Kyme defeated Barbadian Peyton Marshall-Brancker 11-1, 11-2, 11-9 in the bronze medal match.
Lenna Hamati of Barbados copped the girls’ under-13 top medal in a four-set match with Lowe, which ended 11-7, 11-7, 10-12, 11-2. Bermuda’s McKenna Kyme won the bronze with an 11-8, 11-5, 12-10 win over Guyana’s Tiana Gomes, who fought hard and won the second and third sets 11-2, 11-5.
Arjoon took only 16 minutes to crown herself queen in the under-15 category with straight sets: 11-7, 11-5, 11-6 win over Bermuda’s Somers Stevenson. Josie Thong of Trinidad and Tobago took bronze with a 11-6, 11-3, 11-2 triumph over Guyana’s Emily Fung-A-Fat.
In the under-17 final, Barbadian Eboni Atherley was comfortable in victory over Jamaica’s Sanjana Nallapati, scoring 11-7, 11-4, 11-4 to wrap up victory in 25 minutes.
Another Jamaican, Mehar Trehan, took bronze as she, too, brushed aside her opponent Safirah Sumner of Guyana, 11-6, 11-7, 11-5 in under 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, the under-19 crown also went to Barbados, courtesy of Sumairaa Suleman, who rallied to beat Guyana’s Kirsten Gomes 11-8, 11-9, 11-6, after losing the first set 6-11 in a final that lasted just over half an hour.
It was an all-Jamaica battle for the bronze, with Savannah Thomson coming up trumps over Katherine Risden in an entertaining 49-minute five-set contest that ended 12-14, 11-7, 9-11, 11-7, 8-11. (Sportsmax)