Guyana off to resounding start
GUYANA got off to a resounding start at the 2009 Junior CASA Championships currently under way in Barbados. In the morning session yesterday, eight of Guyana’s 20 players were in action and five of them registered victories.

Two out of the three who lost their first-round matches were unfortunate to draw their Guyanese teammates in their first match.

According to a release, several players received byes into the second round and could have got into action last evening or they might be part of this morning’s action.

In the Girls’ Under-13 category, Guyana’s champion Akeila Wiltshire is seeded 3/4 while Gabrielle Fraser is seeded 5/8.

Two-time Caribbean champion Victoria Arjoon is seeded number one in the Under-15 category and Guyana have five out of the top eight seeds in the Under-17 category including the top four seeds.

Defending champion Keisha Jeffrey is seeded #1, while Ashley Khalil, Kayla Jeffrey and Mary Fun-A-Fat round out the top four and Alysa Xavier is one of the 5/8 seeds.

In the two Under-19 categories Daina King and Raphael deGroot are both seeded 3/4, while in the Boys’ Under-17 category Alexander Arjoon is the top seed and Deje Dias has been seeded 5/8.

In the Boys’ Under-15 category Jean-Claude Jeffrey is seeded 5/8 and national Under-13 champion Nyron Joseph is seeded 3/4 in his category.

The individual championships are scheduled to be completed tomorrow evening with the finals of all eight categories, and the team tournament will begin on Tuesday and conclude on Saturday evening.

In selected results from yesterday’s first-round matches; Guyana’s Shem Marcus defeated Brandon Straker of Barbados 8-11, 13-11, 11-3, 12-10 in the Boys’ U-15 age group while in the Boys’ U-17 category, national champion Jason Ray Khalil beat Tom Mann of the Cayman Islands 11-4, 11-5, 11-6; Larissa Wiltshire of Guyana lost to Brittney Wall of Bermuda 4-11, 11-13, 9-11 in a Girls’ U-13 fixture, while Gabrielle Fraser of Guyana defeated her compatriot Taylor Fernandes 11-4, 11-5, 11-3 in another Girls’ U-13 match.

In the Girls’ U-17 age group, Guyana’s Alysa Xavier defeated Zoe Sorrentino of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) 11-2, 11-1, 11-6 and Mary Fung-A-Fat, also of Guyana, defeated her compatriot Ashley deGroot 11-4, 11-4, 11-3.