Thirteen year-old emerging squash talent Rebecca Low is hoping to build on her recent success at the Bounty Farm Mash Handicap tournament to strengthen Guyana’s junior team for the Caribbean Area Squash Association’s (CASA) Caribbean Junior Championships this year.
Low played with one of the most severe handicaps in Category A but managed to win the category with a clinical win against Lucas Jonas in last Sunday’s final. The second form Marian Academy student was also the female recipient of the Most Improved Player award following the tournament.
“I was very happy. It was a great surprise and it shows that hard work really does pay off,” Low said.
National coach Carl Ince told Stabroek Sport that he was not surprised that Low performed exceptionally well against her peers in that category of the tournament since she has demonstrated an exemplary commitment towards training. Ince said that Low had been attending training sessions at 6am and giving her all on the court each time.
“I’ve been working hard lately and to get an award for all that hard work is really nice,” Low said.
One of her motivations is to return to Junior CASA Caribbean Championships which will be held in Trinidad and Tobago, July 21-29 this year. Low said that she hopes to make the team once again this year and help Guyana win a ninth straight overall title.
In her second appearance at CASA last year in Jamaica, Low competed in the Under 13 and made it to the semi-final round. Low also competed in the team tournament to help Guyana capture its eight-consecutive team title.
“CASA last year was great… It helped me improve on my game and the competing overseas with the team was great exposure because we are like a family and they help me a lot,” Low added.
Low also stated that she feels it is such a great privilege to represent her country at the Caribbean level but she understands that a lot is at stake with Guyana’s unprecedented win streak. Low said that winning titles at the Caribbean level has become a tradition for squash in Guyana and she knows that other country’s will be trying their best to break that tradition.
For this reason, Low said that she feels part of the responsibility to try her best to maintain the tradition set by the players before her as well as to pave the way for players to come.
One of the areas that Low felt that she has to work on is her confidence and but she stated her recent performance in the handicap was a major confidence booster.
“At first it was scary knowing that I had one of the hardest handicaps, but after a while I got into it and realised that it wasn’t as hard as it seemed… you can do anything once you put your mind to it,” Low said.
The areas which Lowe felt that she improved on the most was her shot selection and her technique. Low stated that the work that she has done with National Sports Commission’s coach of the year Ince and her other coach Ashley deGroot, was been responsible for the significant improvements to her game.
“Coach Ince has helped me a lot; nothing can replace the work that I did with coach Ince,” Low said. Low is expected to be in competition again later this month in the Guyana Squash Association’s second tournament of the year, the Toucan Industries Junior Skill Level Tournament.
