Oliver Kear-Downes pulled off a stunning upset over two- time Caribbean under-15 champion Alexander Arjoon on Wednesday evening in the ‘A’ category of the Guyana Squash Association’s Toucan Industries Junior Squash Mash tournament.
In the final match of the evening, Downes geared up for his top ranked opponent whom he had surprisingly defeated in the early rounds of the 2007 National Squash Championships.
Arjoon looked ready to shake off the memories of their last encounter but Downes was determined to prove that his first victory was no fluke.
The fearless Downes attacked Arjoon right off the bat and eventually raced to a 9/7 victory in the first game.
As the game continued the rallies got longer and it seemed that no shot was a sure winner, with both players retrieving and unloading first-class shots.
Downes in the end managed to hold on and complete a convincing three-game victory as he won the remaining games 9/6 10/8.
Also in category ‘A’ was Kristian Jeffrey who scored a commanding victory over Jason-Ray Khalil.
During Jeffrey’s straight-games victory, he conceded only one point, which came in the third and final game of the match.
Twin sisters Kayla and Keisha also engaged in healthy sibling rivalry which evolved into sister-sister showdown lasting the full five games, and Keisha won the majority.
The match was tightly contested and the twins took turns at winning in the first four games.
After winning the fourth game 9/6 Kayla entered the fourth and battled to steal the final set, drawing even with her sister at 4/4. However, Keisha raced away to capture the match by not allowing her sister to score another point.
Nicholas Narain also gave a quality night’s play when he came from being one game down against Ashley Khalil to win the next three games and close out the 2008 junior sportswoman.
Narain showed great courage as he got right back up after twisting his ankle in the first game while trying to retrieve a deadly winner from Khalil.