By Tiadi Blair
Last year Victoria Arjoon, Mary Fung-A-Fat and Keisha Jeffrey all earned for themselves the titles of `Queens of Squash’ after winning individual titles at the Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) junior squash championships in Bermuda.
Arjoon won the girls U-13 singles title, Fung-A-Fat won in the U-15 division and Jeffrey defeated sister Kayla in the girls U-17 singles final.
This year, the members of the national junior team, according to national coach Carl Ince, are ready for what will be an exciting Caribbean Junior Squash Championship to be held in Barbados starting Saturday.
Ince says he expects the 20-member team to do very well at this year’s championship considering the quality of play in competitions this year.
He said he had seen improvements in a lot of the players he coaches at the Georgetown Club.
Jeffrey will be defending the girls U-17 singles title which she won in Bermuda, without dropping a game in the final and will have sister Kayla and Fung-A-Fat as rivals. Ince also said Arjoon has a good chance of bringing home the gold as her performance last year was very good.
The Guyana girls’ team won the title in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
Ince said that squash was an elite sport in Guyana and most of the funding comes from the private sector and parents of players.
The association, he pointed out, is only able to pay a certain amount towards entrance fees and travel costs.
Last year the junior boys were unable to secure any individual titles but were at the top of their game in the team events.
Alexander Arjoon reached the furthest falling to Cameron Stafford of the Cayman Islands 4-9, 1-9, 10-8, 4-9 in the boys U-17 final.
This year Guyana will look to Arjoon, Deje Dias and Raphael De Groot for individual titles.
The last time Guyana won the championships in both the male and female team events was in
2003 when they claimed their 12th title overall. The team consists of five boys, five girls, four reserves and six individual competitors.
They will be accompanied by Denise Jeffrey, team manager Robert Fernandes and Ince. The team departs for Barbados Friday morning.
