For the second straight year at the Caribbean Area Squash Association’s (CASA) Junior Caribbean Squash Championships, the girls under 19 final will be contested by two Guyanese players.
National under 19 champion Mary Fung-A-Fat and runner up Ashley deGroot won their respective semi-final encounters and will compete against each other for the Junior CASA U19 title. The match-up is reminiscent of the showdown in that category between Ashley Khalil and five-time junior CASA champion Keisha Jeffrey in last year’s tournament which was won by the latter.
Fung-A-Fat was the first to clinch her spot after defeating Kristina Myren of the Cayman Islands. Fung-A-Fat who has been in top form recently is competing in her final Junior CASA tournament and is the favourite to win her fourth title at this level considering that she has won most of the recent head to head encounters against deGroot.
Nevertheless, the inspiring play of deGroot has gotten her this far and helped her take apart Cayman Islands’ Eilidh Bridgeman in four games in her semi-final encounter. Prior to departure, deGroot told Stabroek Sport that she is motivated by the prospects of winning her maiden Junior CASA title in this her final year at the tournament.
Four-time Caribbean junior champion Victoria Arjoon also returned to the girls under 17 final after defeating Jamaica’s MaryMahfood. Arjoon will play defending champion Charlotte Knaggs of Trinidad and Tobago in today’s final. Knagg, who plays overseas, prevented Arjoon from claiming her fifth title in last year’s tournament on home soil.
Arjoon, a 16-year old scholarship student of St George’s High School in Rhode Island USA told Stabroek Sport that she has been training rigorously with revenge on her mind. Arjoon is also aiming to better Nicolette Fernandes’ record of six Junior CASA title and thinks it is imperative that she wins this year in order to do so.
The other semi-finalist in the Guyana contingent included Jason Ray Khalil (U19), Akeila Wiltshire (U17) Talyor Fernandes (U15) Rebecca Low (U13), Ben Mekdeci (U15)and Patrick Fraser (U15), were unsuccessful in the quest to reach the finals.
