“Leave it all on the court” – Kirsten Gomes’ journey to South American silver

Last week, the Guyanese pair of Kirsten Gomes and Ashley Khalil showed up and showed out in the South American Senior Squash Championships, coming away from the competition in Brazil with silver medals.
Though falling to Chile’s Ana Maria Pinto and Giselle Delgado in the final on Thursday evening, it was their performance in the semi-finals that was the highlight of their campaign.

The Guyanese came from behind to defeat Guatemala’s Darlyn Sandoval and Tabita Gaitan, 9-11, 11-9, 11-8 in order to move on to the final.
Now, with her silver medal proudly strung around her neck, Gomes shared her experience at the games and challenges they had with acclimatising.
“The environment at the South American games is definitely different from what I’m used to in the Caribbean, the level of play was a lot more difficult, also a lot of the players are on the pro circuit too, so, it was quite an experience in Brazil and I’m glad I got that exposure and that experience, moving forward with my squash,” Gomes told Guyana Times Sport.
She continued, “Yes, of course, it was very different, because here in Guyana, we’re used to the hot court and over there it’s a little bit cooler, colder, the ball was flying off the walls a lot more, so it took us a couple training sessions there to get acclimatised to how the ball was moving and I think it got better as we progressed through the tournament.”

Walking this publication through their final game, Gomes admitted that their intention was just to “leave it all on the court”.
“That was very close, the scores were close. I’m not sure how I pulled that off, but I was very nervous for the entire game, I knew it was kinda close, we were getting some good points.”
The South American Championships silver medallist continued regarding their semifinal win, “There was loads of nerves. I know we lost the first game, so going into the second game, I just wanted to leave everything on the court and make sure I fought my hardest to potentially get past that round.
“I think the game plan was always to leave it all on the court. So, we knew that that was it. So, we went on with the game plan that if we were able to get this gold medal that would be excellent, but either way, we would give it our all on the court.”
Gomes elucidated, “The final match was actually played on the glass court, which we weren’t playing on for the entire tournament, we were playing on the club court, so it was a lot of nerves getting used to how the ball bounced differently, it was between that and the nerves of being in the final obviously, with everybody watching and streaming back home. All of that contributed to how we played on court.”
Gomes went on to share about playing alongside the experienced Khalil, “I learnt a lot from Ashley, she’s always giving me tips. Like when I do something good, she’s like ‘that’s good, keep going’. She would always communicate on the court and I’m very thankful for that.”
Though they came up short in the gold-medal match, the Guyanese squash players are pleased with their achievement, Gomes went on to share what the medal means to her and the sport in Guyana.
The squash player shared, “I’m very satisfied. Sometimes, I think back to what I could’ve done differently, but, in the end, I gave it my all and it’s all experience, exposure maybe for future tournaments.”
“I think that means that we’re right there with the other teams, we’ve got what it takes, we’ve got the talent, we’ve got the dedication, the drive on court, we’re right there with the other teams and hopefully, other athletes from Guyana can compete at that level.
“I’m so glad that we were able to compete there at the South American games this year, because we haven’t in a long time; so, hopefully we can go forward with that in the future, maybe even get the gold,” she further stated.