Perennial rivals Victoria Arjoon and Mary Fung-A-Fat’s titanic battle was one of the highlights of the Toucan Industries Mashramani junior squash tournament which ended yesterday at the Georgetown Club’s courts.

Fung-A-Fat and Arjoon combined have a total of five Caribbean junior titles between them and yesterday the two

young ladies battled each other tooth and nail in the `B’ category final which went the full five games before Fung-A-Fat triumphed 11-7 in the fifth.

In another crowd-pleasing encounter the multi talented Jason Ray Khalil and long time nemesis Deje Dias put on a spectacular show in the first two games with their amazing retrieving that drew gasps from the crowd time and again.

The showpiece of junior squash in Guyana over the past few years has however been the encounters between Alexander Arjoon and Oliver Kear-Downes, and after their first game which lasted for 20 minutes and ended 18-16 in Arjoon’s favor, there was no doubt that this was the match of the day.

Both players were physically exhausted going into the second but it was Downes’ steadier play that saw him through 11/5. In the third Arjoon took control of the centre of the court and started to dictate the rallies, with Downes doing the majority of the retrieving to go down 7/11. The fourth was an even contest until Downes pulled off some amazing kill shots to close off the game 11/8 and force the decider. The fifth started with Arjoon investing in some long hard rallies which worked to perfection as Downes completely faded both physically and mentally, allowing Arjoon to move from 4-4 to 11/4 in a flash.

In his closing remarks assistant tournament director Dias thanked the sponsors KRAFT through their local distributors Toucan Industries Inc. for making the tournament a success. He also thanked the Georgetown Club as well as the coaches, players and parents for there role in the tournament. In addition to the top three finishers in each category there were also four special prizes given out for sportsmanship, most outstanding player and most promising girl and boy.

All eyes will now be focused on the national selectors as name the national junior training squads to begin preparations for the Caribbean championships in Grand Cayman in July of this year.