FORMER Caribbean junior champions Akeila Wiltshire and Nyron Joseph took home their final national junior titles last Sunday when they won the Girls’ Under-19 and Boys’ Under-19 titles respectively, with sweeping 3-0 victories as the Woodpecker Product Junior National Squash Championships concluded last Sunday at the courts of the Georgetown Club.Also ending impressively was Makeda Harding whose remarkable performance led her to champion both the Girls’ U-13 and U-15, while in second place in the Girls’ Under-17 category, a feat that earned her the Most Outstanding Girl award at the tournament.
The Most Outstanding Boy award went to a deserving Shomari Wiltshire who concluded the competition with the Boys’ U-13 title and a runner-up position behind Alexander Cheeks in the Boys’ U-15 category.
Alexander Cheeks held off a compelling approach by the younger Shomari Wiltshire to take their match 3-1, and with it the top U-15 spot, relegating his opponent to second, and the hard-working Daniel Islam to third. Islam earlier beat his twin brother Anthony 3-0, in a highly energetic game.
An award for Most Improved Girl went to Girls’ U-17 winner Rebecca Low, while Most Improved Boy went to Daniel Islam. These players are now expected to carry on the flame, with Wiltshire and Joseph gone.
Three-time Caribbean champion Joseph snagged his victory in a match-up against Boys’ U-17 winner Ben Mekdeci. In a close match, Joseph scrambled to victory in the first game 15-13, before taking the following games 11-7, 11-6 to finish on a high note.
For her part Wiltshire faced off against her sister Larissa to claim her U-19 title. It was experience over youth, as Akeila triumphed 11-9, 11-6, 13-11 over her younger sibling.
The two showed impressive fitness as each hard-earned point was followed by another, with a mixture of thoughtful cross court strokes and deliberate drops employed by each, to take the ball away from the other, matched by intuitive court movement.
Akeila and Nyron have now graduated to the senior category, after spending a number of years representing Guyana at the junior level. Joseph won three consecutive titles from 2011 to 2013 representing Guyana at the junior level and will no doubt be missed.
Akeila, who has also been a prominent fixture on the Guyana national junior team for the past few years, which climaxed with a win of the Caribbean Girls’ U-15 title in 2011.
Nonetheless, outstanding performances displayed by a number of younger athletes showed that the Guyana team will be able to comfortably fill the void, even with the Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Junior Championships just around the corner.
“The evidence of more youthful engagement in the sport was apparent as the tournament featured a competitive Under-9 category, which was won by Beau Fernandes and Mohryan Baksh,” a press release from the Guyana Squash Association noted.
“This, according to GS member Raymond Islam, augurs well for the future of the sport. He also noted the rapid improvement of the younger players, exposed to a strong training programme, experienced coaches and regular competition as a reason to be excited about Guyana’s chances on the global and regional scale in both the near and distant future,” the press release continued.
In other title wins in the competition, Kirsten Gomes finished with the Girls’ U-11 category where Paige Fernandes finished second.
In the Girls’ U-13 category Gomes ended behind Harding after she battled to victory over Madison Fernandes winning 11-5, 9-11, 11-5, 12-10. The Boys’ U-11 category was won by Ethan Jonas.
The tournament was hosted by the Guyana Squash Association (GSA) in collaboration with its corporate sponsor Digicel.