Fernandes seeking more exposure for Squash players in 2017
By Akeem Greene
A 12th successive Caribbean Junior Squash Association title and third place finish at the senior championships are the two major achievements of the Guyana Squash Association this year. Combined with that four players [Taylor Fernandes, Alexander Cheeks, Rebecca Lowe and Shomari Wiltshire] represented the country at the US and Canada Junior Open tournaments where they placed in the middle of the seeds.
The multi-talented Alexander Cheeks played at the US Junior Open and on the local circuit has shown immense promise
It is with these achievements that President of the Guyana Squash Association (GSA) David Fernandes is overjoyed but is not relishing in the success for too long as he seeks to have the players engage in more international tournaments.
“We had some juniors recently returning from the Canadian and US open, all of them did credible, they finished in the middle of the pack, in a group of 64 they would have brought 33 or 34 in the pack,” the President explained.
He further stated, “what we learned is that these kids play with high intensity and
Guyana Squash Association President David Fernandes
only through major dedication by our athletes and good opportunities at international competitions, only then can I see them being in the top 20 or 15 in these tournaments; My goal is that the athletes continue training in the new year in preparation of us hosting and they give a good show.”
In terms of the junior and senior teams’ performance, the President felt that the juniors produced an excellent showing the Cayman Islands despite a stiff challenge from Barbados in the final.
“We did very well this year especially in the juniors we did above expectations in the juniors because we knew that we had a close fight with Barbados but in the end everything worked out in our favour and we retained for the 12 time in succession Caribbean overall champions,” Fernandes said.
While in the seniors he felt they performed well despite the injury to a vital player, stating, “Our senior team was less fortunate even though we had a great team both in the men’s and women’s but unfortunately an injury to our number one player Sunil Seth’s foot caused us in the men’s side to have a weaken team”.
The squash head was enthused about the talents noticed in tournaments such as Bounty Farm handicap, Digicel National Open, Woodpecker Junior National Championships, Farfan and Mendes Juniors and the Toucan Industries Juniors.
For 2017, Guyana is expected to host the 35th annual Caribbean Junior Championships in July while a month after the seniors will travel to St. Vincent and the Grenadines for the 24th edition of the champions; in February, the junior team will play the South American Championships in Paraguay.
