By Sean Devers
AFTER five days and a record 115 matches, the Guinness National Senior Squash Championships climaxed last Saturday evening as Alex Arjoon and the ageless Nicolette Fernandes were crowned 2023 National Squash Champions in the Men’s and Women’s categories, respectively.
The tournament took place at the Georgetown Club.
Watched by a colourful and raucous capacity crowd, the atmosphere on the final evening of the tournament was absolutely fantastic.

On the court, despite the large number of games which seemed to affect the players physically, the quality of Squash was riveting.
The curtain came down with the completion of the Men’s final in which a tired-looking Shomari Wiltshire was dethroned by southpaw Arjoon in a hard-fought final 12-10, 11-4, 11-8.
In a match punctuated by long rallies and calculated drop shots, the defending champion controlled the first half of game one before Arjoon put his foot on the gas and won 12-10.
The left-handed Arjoon played a flurry of backhand shots from the right side of the court, forcing Shomari to counter with forehand plays.

Arjoon, despite making a few mistakes, triumphed 11-4 while in the third game, although Shomari offered fight; he seemed affected by his energy-sapping contest with Samuel Ince Carvalhal on Friday night.
As the game progressed Shomari seemed to tire and eventually lost the game 11-8 and the match 3-0.
In the Women’s final, Nicolette continued to prove that age is just a number and at age 40, seemed fitter than her younger opponents.

Added to her professional attitude to the sport, vast experience and superior speed, the talented Ashely Khalil who did not play her best Squash on the night, was no match for Nicolette, a six-time Caribbean and Guyana’s only World Masters Champion.
Nicolette would eventually secure a clinical 11-4, 11-4, 11-4 win against Ashley, the defending Caribbean women’s singles Champion.
Dennis Dias took the Men’s Veterans over-50 title by beating Brian Edwards 13-11, 10-12, 11-4, 13-15, 11-5 in a completive match between the old stagers, while Lydia Fraser beat Michelle Low in the final of the Women’s Veterans competition.

During his speech at the presentation, Lee Baptist told the large gathering that this sponsorship will target a different type of market for his company’s product.
This is the second year that Guinness is on board as sponsor and Baptist added that when he was entering the venue he saw the Guinness flags and suggested that for next year’s tournament TV screens could be set up, since he noticed that the place was packed and some fans could not see the games.

Also speaking was Head of Mobile Networks at E-Net, Robert Hiscock, who played a bit of Squash, informed spectators that E-Net was pleased to partner with the GSA to stream this event live.
Other results:
Men’s draw: Deje Dias beat Jonathan Antczak, Mohryan Baksh beat Louis da Silva, Reagan Rodrigues beat Justin Ten Pow, Miguel Wong beat Richard Rodrigues, Demetrius De Abreu, Jeremy Ten Pow beat Nandishraj Singh, Peter De Groot beat Jason Van Dijk, Nicolas Verwey beat Steven Xavier, Jason Ray Khalil beat Samuel Ince Carvalhal.
Women’s draw: Safirah Summer beat Malia Maikoo, Larrissa Wiltshire beat Kirsten Gomes, Victoria Arjoon beat Avery Arjoon, Mary Fung-a-Fat beat Taylor Fernandes.