OVER the past weekend Shomari Wiltshire entered the 2018 Newport Steamer Summer Gold tournament held in Providence, Rhode Island at two venues – the St George’s School and the Portsmouth Abbey School, where he promptly came out with top honours.

This was a Gold tournament; in the USA Gold tournaments are ranked second behind the Junior Championships (JCT).

Shomari had already won the Finger Lakes Gold tournament in September of last year and was the top seed in the Boys’ U-15 draw due to the accumulated points gained at the US Junior Squash Open last December.

Wiltshire got off to a flyer in the first round and defeated Omar Cochinwala in straight sets of 11-2, 11-4, and 11-5.

Meanwhile in the second round he defeated Isaac Mitchell 11-5, 11-1, and 11-4 to book his quarter-final spot.

In the quarter-final he faced Ashton Monteirro (runner-up in the Washington DC Gold held earlier in the summer); Shomari lost the first set 7-11 but rebounded nicely to win the next three sets 11-2, 11-6, and 11-7.

Over in the semi-finals he came up against Hollis Robertson (winner of two Under-15 Summer Gold tournaments) and proved to be Shomari’s toughest opponent in the tournament.

Shomari lost the first set 7-11 but rebounded to win the next two games 11-5, 11-6.

However, with scores matched evenly at 9 apiece in the fourth set, Shomari was two points away from reaching his second Gold U-15 final but he made an unforced error and lost the fourth set 9-11.

In the decisive fifth set Shomari trailed 1-5 but showed maturity and determination to make a comeback to eventually win the set at 11-8.

In the final Shomari faced the number 2 seed, Robert Avram. Here, Wiltshire played his best match, dominating the hapless Avram to win in straight sets of 11-6, 11-5, and 11-2 to win his second US Gold tournament.

Wiltshire is currently in the USA to attend a Summer Squash Camp which will be held from August 20 to 24, at the Chatham Club in New Jersey and organised by Sunil Seth, a current Guyana national player.

Shomari expressed gratitude to his sponsors Dunlop and Rainforest Waters as well as coaches Carl Ince, Nyron Joseph and Kezqweyah Yisrael, along with the Top End team.

He also expressed gratitude to Kathleen Paul, his massage therapist and noted that without their contributions his success would not have been possible.