GUYANA’S highest-ranked squash player Nicolette Fernandes is currently undergoing off-season training in Guyana with the aim of improving her world ranking. Chronicle Sport caught up with the world No. 24 to gain an insight as to how training is going. “A lot of it is off the court, it’s basically building your body back up after a long, gruelling season of on-court stuff and I think that the work that is put in during the three months off-season takes you through the season physically, because once a tournament starts you don’t have much time to improve physically. This is the big period. If you are going to improve physically, then it’s now.”
The Guyanese has also brought a sparring partner this time around, the world No. 44, Deon Saffery, who is also her partner in England where she resides. The Wales international, according to Fernandes has been assisting in off-season training. “It’s fantastic to have Deon here because she helps a lot. A lot of the top guys are not here, guys like Kristian (Jeffrey) and Alex Arjoon, so it’s been great having her here.”
Meanwhile the world No. 44 says that she is overjoyed to have been invited to Guyana, describing her time so far as highly enjoyable. “It’s been perfect. I’ve had the opportunity to see Guyana and then train as well. It’s a nice compromise.”
She indicated that this year, the players have been given a breathing room in terms of international competition.
“This year we are lucky because we have had a really long summer break and we’ve had about three months rest. Last season we only had 5 weeks rest because of the Commonwealth Games.”
The duo have about seven weeks before they return to competition which in some cases would run until the following year.

By Stephan Sookram