GUYANA has already secured one of the eight individual titles at the Caribbean Area Squash Association’s (CASA) Junior Caribbean Squash Championships and will be vying for three more in the finals of the tournament later this evening at the Liguanea Club Kingston, Jamaica. Larissa Wiltshire, Ashley DeGroot, Nyron Joseph, Victoria Arjoon and Mary Fung-A-Fat will all be competing in their respective age category finals of the 2012 Junior CASA championships. By virtue of having two finalists in the girls Under 19 category, De Groot and Fung-A-Fat, Guyana has already clinched individual title.
Girls U19 number one seed Fung-A-Fat was clinical in her semi-final match against Cayman Islands’ Kristina Myren as she raced to victory without dropping a game(11/3, 11/1, 11/6).
Playing for her fourth Junior CASA title year, Fung-A-Fat has been in impeccable form winning all her matches in the tournament in straight-game fashion.
Fung-A-Fat will have to do battle against her much-improved teammate DeGroot in the all-Guyanese girls U19 final. DeGroot, who has been playing superb squash in recent months, disposed of Eilidh Bridgeman of the Cayman Islands in four games 11/8, 6/11, 12 /10, 11/ 3.
Playing in her final year at the junior level, DeGroot who is also a national hockey player is willed by the drive to capture her first Caribbean squash title.
Meanwhile, Arjoon, who already has four Junior CASA titles, will be competing for her fifth against arch nemesis Charlotte Knaggs of Trinidad and Tobago in a rematch of last year’s Girls U17 final. Knaggs upset Arjoon in last year’s tournament and snapped her streak of four straight titles. Knaggs was also responsible for preventing an all Guyanese U17 final after defeating 2011 CASA U15 champion Akeila Wiltshire in her semi-final match11/13, 8/11, 8 /11.
National U17 champion Nyron Joseph produced a miraculous come-from-behind win to stun arch rival Nku Patrick and advance to the Boys U17 final. Joseph and Patrick have been going at it almost religiously every year at Junior CASA and as recently as last year Joseph defeated Patrick to win his first Caribbean title in the Boys U15 final.
This year Joseph found himself peering down the eyes of defeat after losing the first two games 9/11, 8/11 in the three-best-of-five encounter. But that must have been the motivation that the 15-year-old fourth form Christ Church student needed as he won the next two games 11/8, 11/2 to even the match and force a fifth game.
Joseph gave his coach and teammates a scare of cardiac arrest proportions, once again, as Patrick pulled away late in the fifth and got game ball at 10/7. Once again Joseph stared adversity in the face, held his composure and won five consecutive points (12/10) to progress to the finals.
Last year’s girls U15 runner up Larissa Wiltshire returned to the final in that category once again this year after overpowering Trinidad and Tobago Faith Gillezeau 11/ 4, 11/8, 11/4. The Queen’s College student is the number one seed in the category which was won by her older sister Akeila last year.
Larissa Wiltshire will have to defeat two-time junior CASA champion Alyssa Mullings of Jamaica to claim her maiden title. Mullings, the Jamaican national U15 champion defeated Guyanese under 15 champion Taylor Fernandes 11/8, 11/2, 11/9 in the semi-final.
Under 15 campaigners Benjamin Mekdeci and Patrick Fraser both lost their semi-final encounters and will play each other for third place. After some inspiring play in the first two rounds, Rebecca Low was eliminated from the Girls U13 semi-final.
National U19 champion Jason Ray-Khalil was also eliminated in the U19 semi-final from Noah Browne, who had defeated Steven Xavier in the quarter finals