By Tamica Garnett
SIX times GBTI Open men’s singles winner Anthony Downes, and Cristy Campbell were the Senior Male and Female Year End winners, while Heimraj Resaul and Afruica Gentle won the junior awards Friday night when the Guyana Tennis Association held its 3rd Annual Awards ceremony at the Le Resouvenir Tennis Club on the East Coast of Demerara.
With 5200 points and a number of wins last year, Downes was an easy pick for the award. Campbell had 3200 points to take the top spot. With 7550 points Resaul took the Junior Male Year End winner, and Gentle was in with 6775 points.
Mark McDonald took an award for being the “Most Improved Junior”. The ceremony was one of the ways the Association seeks to recognise players and individuals who continuously give of themselves with the expectation of elevating tennis in Guyana.
Present at the ceremony was GTA president Jamal Goodluck, and Director of Sport, Christopher Jones, and junior tennis scholar, Gavin Lewis, who is home on holiday.
On accepting her award,Campbell thanked her mom, Misty ,and coaches Dexter and Rebecca for their support in helping her to get where she is. She wished all players an injury free year for 2017 and charged them to execute good sportsmanship throughout the year.
Gentle also made remarks as she accepted her award, and spoke of how honoured she was to finally achieve the top spot in junior tennis, an aspiration she has had for the last three years. She also thanked her family, coaches and friends for their support.
Also collecting some hardware on Friday night were the winners of the recently concluded Trophy Stall Doubles tournament.
Downes was once again at the receiving end as he shared the men’s open doubles title with Jason Andrews, and the mixed open doubles with Afruica Gentle.
Resual and Jordan Beaton were runners-up in the men’s open, while Resaul and Kalyca Fraser were runner-ups in the mixed doubles. Gentle and Campbell took trophies for the ladies open doubles. Mother/daughter pair of Shelly Daly-Ramdyhan and Nicola Ramdyhan took away the ladies doubles runners-up trophy.
For the men’s over 35 doubles the winners were Leyland Leacock and Ronald Murray, and the runners-up were Alexander Almeida and Sandeep Chand.
Jones received resounding applause during his address with his announcement of a signed MoU between the National Sports Commission and the GTA, which will see lights being installed at the National Racquet Centre before the Inter Guiana Games in October.
In his remarks,Goodluck noted that the ceremony was a moment of reflection on the hard work done during 2016 to build the organisation as an institution that provides development opportunities for the children and nation.
Goodluck also thanked the sponsors who have been tangibly supporting the sport of tennis over the years.
Special mention was made of Trophy Stall, GBTI, Bakewell, parents, players and the media. Coming in for high praises was overseas-based Dr. Arthur Ingram Hazlewood, who once again sponsored the awards, and has been financially supporting the GLTA for the past 6 years. Additionally,Professor Duke made her annual donation to the GLTA for 2016.
