– GSA President says squad is well prepared

THE national senior squash team that will represent Guyana this week in the Caribbean Senior Squash Championships (CASA) slated for Trinidad and Tobago is expected to depart Guyana today for the twin- island republic. The championships are scheduled to run from 8 – 16 of August, and will see the participation of top players from all across the Caribbean.
The Guyana men’s team is led by world-ranked player Sunil Seth, and also includes 2010 men’s champion Richard Chin as well as Alex Arjoon, Kristian Jeffrey, Jason Ray Khalil, and Benjamin Mekdeci. On the women’s side is current Caribbean junior girls’ Under-19 champion Larissa Wiltshire, and finalist Taylor Fernandes, as well as former junior Caribbean champions Akeila Wiltshire, Mary Fung-a-Fat, and Victoria Arjoon.
The female team of course will continue to go without the leading skills of world-ranked Nicollette Fernandes.
Fernandes has been unable to represent Guyana for some time now due to her professional commitments on the international stage, where she continues to excel.
The veterans’ team will be made up of Raman Chan-A-Sue in the over-40 category, Joe Mekdeci in the over-50 and Alwyn Calledar in the over-60 category.
President of the Guyana Squash Association, David Fernandes, is of the opinion that the team is very well prepared for this year’s championships and he expects some good performances.
“Both the men and women’s teams are very balanced. The seniors that have been in Guyana they have been training very hard for the past few weeks, I would even say they are better prepared than last year and I think that they have good team spirit and I believe they will do very well,” Fernandes said.
The Guyana ladies’ team are currently the defending champions in that category, a title they have held for the past three years. The men’s team on the other hand relinquished the title to Jamaica last year. Overall, Guyana has not held the team title since 2013, when the competition was held on home turf.