Team Guyana defended their home turf with honour yesterday, prevailing in the majority of their matches to emerge as the front-runners in session one of the Caribbean Junior, Cadet Championships held yesterday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
The tournament served off about 10am, after the two teams that arrived late last night, Jamaica and St Kitts got a chance to familiarize themselves with the playing conditions, while the other teams including Guyana, got the warm-up knock.
The home team got off to a successful first session as they won four of the five matches that they played.
National champions Trenace Lowe and Michelle John teamed up to complete an emphatic victory against Megan Steinbrok and Lisa Payne in the girls’ U-18 doubles to seal their first win in the category.
The right and left hand combination of John and Lowe wasted no time and cashed in on their first win with relative ease 11-3, 11-5 and 11-4, scoring the majority of the points with vigorous slams.
The U-15 GT boys’ team which consisted of Samuel Fraser, Denzil Hopkinson, Stephen Patior and Denzil Duff fought to gain two tough victories within the 90 minutes.
In their first encounter, they met a determined Team Jamaica led by Jermaine James who remains undefeated after the first session. James got past Fraser in straight sets 11-6, 11-5 and 11-7 and then returned to give Stephen Patior a taste of his powerful Jamtown forehand.
Pattior and Hopkinson got past Jamie Allen and Glen Ross McDonald in the doubles match-up to level the match at 2-2 after Hopkinson had beaten Ross-Mc Donald in the previous match. Fraser got control of his nerves and redeemed himself in the series-clinching match when he defeated Allen 11-6, 11-9 and 11-8.
The GT U-15 boys’ got their other victory in a more convincing manner when they defeated St. Kitts 3-0.
Manager of Team Jamaica Robert Hyatt said that the boys’ U-18 squad will certainly be a force to be reckoned with during the course of the tournament. The Barbadians were the first victims of the Jamaicans who flawlessly overcame them 3-0.
Their first win came from one of their strongest players Michael Cai who handled every shot that Shane Norville threw his way to win 10-12, 11-3, 11-3 and 16-14.
The Jamaican girls’ U-15 team was responsible for Guyana’s only loss of the day as the National champion Yvonne Foster, Petrina Bogle and Tracy Anne Dattadeen got into action to pull off a dramatic 3-1 victory against Cheryl Duncan, Ambrose Thomas and Adeille Rosheuvel.
Poster-boy Nigel Bryan and the GT U-18 boys Darwin Walcott and Warren Hacksaw quieted the Curacao cheers when they claimed a commanding 3-10 victory.
Hackshaw defeated Micheal Dalnoot 11-5, 11-8, 11-13 and 15-11. Bryan got into to action and made quick work of Karim Alders 11-7, 11-6 and 11-1, before he teamed up with Hackshaw and dismissed Alders and Jourick Monte in the doubles match-up.
