GUYANA swept the Under-15 and U-17 classes when the 2019 Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) championships concluded in Trinidad and Tobago yesterday.

At the U-15 level, Guyana cleaned house with the rest of the Caribbean, both Nicholas Verwey and Micheal Alphonso making it to the final.

Their paths were contrasting as Verwey had a five-set rattle (9-11, 8-11, 11-7, 13-11, 11-6) against Cayman Islands Jace Jervis while Alphonso hammered out Barbados’ Aiden Parris (12-10, 11-8, 11-5).in the eventual final, Alphonso stood tall with an 11-9, 11-9 11-6 win over his fellow Guyanese.

On the Girls end, Kristen Gomes was made to work for her win against Barbados’ Sumairaa Suleman. She went down in the first two sets 4-11, 5-11, but dug deep to produce a comeback in the final three (11-8, 11-4, 11-8) much to the pleasure of the small but vocal crowd. In her earlier semi-final, she overcame Jamaica’s Savannah Thompson 11-0, 11-6, 11-5.

The result was the same at the U-17 level with an all-Guyanese game between Abosaide Cadogan and Madison Fernandes. They both were able to make it to finals pretty easy, Cadogan steering clear of the hosts’ Chloe Walcott (11-5, 11-3,11-7) while Fernandes beat Bermuda’s Abigail Brewer 12-10, 11-7, 11-6).

In the final, however, it was Cadogan who won in straight sets 11-7, 13-11, 11-4.
In the male final, it was all Shomari Wiltshire who held through to his form with an 11-3, 11-8, 5-11, 11-2 win over Darien Benn of Barbados.

Wiltshire had the first two sets in the bag but Benn came back strong in set three. Wiltshire was able to close him off early in the fourth set for the win.
In the semi-final, Wiltshire got the better of Bermuda’s Matthew Elliot 11-4, 11-2, 11-1 while Guyana’s Samuel Ince-Carvalhal was beaten by Benn 11-6, 7-11, 14-12, 11-9. Ince Carvalhal won the third-place playoff by trouncing Elliot (11-9, 11-8, 11-8). Gianni Carpenter finished seventh.

Guyana had no U-19 boys with Makeda Harding finishing 7th in the Girls U-19.
In the Girls U-13, Beau Fernandes finished 5th with Safirah Sumner 9th while at the Boys level, Morhyan Baksh lost a hard final to Seth Thong (11-9, 6-11, 11-5, 2-11, 13-11). Baksh’s semi-final (11-8, 11-5, 11-4) win came against St Vincent’s Jaydon Williams. Louis DaSilva also finished fourth in this category after losing to Williams in the third place game (11-8, 11-9, 2-11, 11-5)

In the Girls U-11 Barbados’ Phoebe Gittens won the round-robin fixture with three points ahead of Guyana’s Tiana Gomes and Christiana Fernandes while in the Boys division Grant Fernandes finished fifth with an 11-8, 11-4, 8-11, 10-12, 11-2 win over Zeviah Abrahams.