Guyana Junior and Caribbean Under-15 Champion Shomari Wiltshire is currently in the USA to attend a Summer Squash Camp at the Chatham Club in New Jersey from August 20 to 24, 2018.
Guyanese top seed Shomari Wiltshire
Wiltshire, who is currently sponsored by Dunlop, is undergoing personalised training under the tutelage of the camp organiser, current Guyana national player Sunil Seth prior to participation. Over the last weekend, the Banks DIH Rainforest Waters Brand Ambassador also entered the 2018 Newport Steamer Summer Gold Tournament. The Tournament was held in Providence, Rhode Island at two venues – the St George’s School and the Portsmouth Abbey School.
In the USA, Gold Tournaments are ranked second behind the Junior Championships (JCT). With 280 registered players, according to tournament information, it was one of the largest non-JCT events in the country in 2018. Because Wiltshire had won the Finger Lakes Gold Tournament in September 2017 and also due to the accumulated points gained at the US Junior Squash Open in December 2017, he was seeded number one in the Boys’ Under-15 draw.
In the first round, he defeated Omar Cochinwala 11-2, 11-4, 11- 5 and in the second round, he defeated Isaac Mitchell 11-5, 11-1, 11- 4 to reach the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals, he faced Ashton Monteiro, who had finished as the runner-up in the Washington DC Gold Tournament held earlier in the summer. Wiltshire lost the first game 7-11, but bounced back to win the next three games 11- 2, 11- 6, 11- 7.
In the semi-finals, he came up against Hollis Robertson, who had won two Under-15 Summer Gold Tournaments – the Washington DC Junior Gold and the 2018 Virginia Summer Gold – and was seeded 3/4 in the tournament. This would prove to be Wiltshire’s toughest match in the tournament. He lost the first game 7-11 but rebounded to win the next two games 11-5, 11-6 and at 9-all in the fourth game, Wiltshire was two points away from reaching his second Gold Under-15 final, but he made an unforced error and ended up losing the fourth game 9- 11. In the fifth game, Wiltshire trailed 1-5, but kept a cool head and staged a comeback to eventually win the fifth game 11-8.
In the final, Wiltshire was pitted against the number two seed, Robert Avram, but this game would prove to be anticlimactic after the semi-final match-up the previous evening. Wiltshire easily won in straight games 11-6, 11-5, 11-2 to claim his second US Gold Tournament.
He expressed gratitude to his sponsors Dunlop and Rainforest Waters, Coaches Carl Ince and Nyron Joseph, Kezqweyah Yisrael and the Top End team and also to massage therapist Kathleen Paul, as without their contributions his success would not have been possible.
