A photo finish at the Tennis Inter Guiana Games (IGG) ended in favour of first-timers Martinique, who held their nerves on the final day to outplay Guyana and emerge champions at the League Centre in Cayenne, French Guiana.
The successful Martinique female team after winning the championship
The winners started the day with 16 wins and trailed host French Guiana but due to some spectacular performances from the talented players they managed to emerge as winners. Martinique tied with French Guiana 9-9 on the opening day, while they lost to Suriname 7-11 on the second day, but rebounded well to win against Guyana and become the overall champions. Martinique finished with 31 wins.
French Guiana and Suriname tied on 27 wins while Guyana after their disappointed final day where none of their players managed to win in either the singles or the doubles ended on 22 wins.
At the end of the fifth edition of the tournament Suriname have three wins, French Guiana one and now Martinique in their first appearance at the Games. Guyana is yet to win a title.
The Guyanese girls continued a strong showing although Guyana fell short of winning the title on the final day.
The female players led by Nicola Ramdyhan, the only Guyanese not to lose a match and Afruica Gentle dominated most of the day’s proceedings for Guyana. The female pair closed Guyana’s final match ecstatically with a thumping of Martinique Under-18 girls Dieuvella Gaspard and Laura Guyot 6-0 6-2.
Prior to that they won their individual matches comprehensively as they kept Guyana in the hunt for an inaugural title. Gentle defeated Guyot 6-2 6-6 9-7 in the day’s first match while Ramdyhan defeated Gaspard by a 6-2 6-4 margin.
Once again the entire female team put in a valiant effort but the boys lacked poise to win their matches as they disappointed on the final day.
Guyana tied with Suriname 9-9 on the opening day, lost to the host 8-10 and 5-13 to the champions.
The President of the French Guiana Tennis League, Christian Pitta, praised the 48 players for their competitive showing in the 108 games that were played. He was also in high praises for the coach and parents, who assisted in many ways more than expected and said he could only see the tournament growing in the future.
Subsequently the President of French Guiana then handed Guyana’s President Jamal Goodluck the baton since they will be the next host in 2017.
Goodluck in his brief speech thanked the French authorities for a well-organized tournament which was done in the traditional custom of the IGG and promised to ensure that the trend continues when his country host next year.
There were special prizes for the teams and the winner of each categories were named. The Guyana under-18 girls dominated to win their category while Suriname and Martinique won two categories and French Guiana won one.
Overall it was an efficient event which got underway at 8:30h daily and finished at around 20:00h.
Guyana finished at the bottom of the point standings but they were very competitive on the first two days and surprisingly faltered on the ultimate day. Nevertheless, they were a unified team, who had no practice facility prior to their departure. They must be proud of themselves and return home and work to strengthen their weaknesses so next year they could gain a better result.
