PRESIDENT of the Guyana Badminton Association, Emily Ramdhani, says she is buoyed by the talented young crop representing the country at the CAREBACO Junior Badminton Championships in Kingston, Jamaica.

She says she was pleased with the gold medal-winning performance of Anjaneysa Godette.

“I was very excited about this gold medal for Anjaneysa; it has been a while since Priyanna Ramdhani that we have gotten a gold medal at CAREBACO and we are just happy for Anjaneysa.  Anjaneysa Godette and Joel Rambiriche, they are doing well in the under 13, they came out of the Under 11 category, last year,” she said,

Godette struck gold for Guyana in the U-13 girls’ singles, beating Jamaica’s Aaqilah Akuri, 2-1.

Godette had earlier dispatched Jamaica’s Brea Grant 21-8, 21-10 in the semifinals.

Guyana’s Joel Rambiriche collected bronze in the U-13 boys’ singles after losing his semifinal to Barbados’ Liam Bruce, 21-3, 21-5.

Godette and Rambiriche also took bronze in the U-13 mixed doubles after a semifinal loss to Barbados’ Siraj Brathwaite and Zaria Mayers.

Ramdhani says Godette and Rambiriche, who recently wrote the national grade six assessment did well and are good examples of striking the balance between sports and education.

“Sports and education can go hand in hand; the kids coming up can look forward to good things happening in badminton for them especially with this new coach coming on board. He was only able to work with them for two weeks before they departed for CAREBACO and they have showed improvement in their tactical play.”

She credited the work of newly hired international coach, Kartikey Gund, who worked with the team before departing, in building the physical and mental conditioning.

Ramdhani says the GBA will send Frank Waddell and Nkosi Beaton to the Costa Rica international tournament next month.

Guyana is also set to send a representative team to South American Games in September in Rosario, Argentina.