Reigning Caribbean U17 squash champion Nyron Joseph completed a stunning win against Steven Xavier to capture the Category A title during the Toucan Industries Kool Aid Junior Skill Level squash tournament yesterday afternoon at the Georgetown Club’s squash facility.
The 16-year-old Christ Church Secondary School student managed to defeat his long-time squash adversary Xavier in straight games to finish the tournament undefeated. Joseph was also named the most outstanding male player of the tournament.
Matches between Joseph and Xavier are always closely contested and usually go down to the wire in five games. This time however, Joseph was all business; remaining focussed and determined to the last point. Less than a month ago, a jauntier version of Joseph was eliminated in the quarter final round of the Bounty Farm Mash Handicap tournament.
This time around, not even top under 19 campaigner Xavier could stop the surging younger Joseph from capturing the title. Xavier had displayed top form prior to the match taking out all his opponents with relative ease. Yesterday, however, Joseph was on top of his game and Xavier’s inconsistency and frequent unforced errors saw him on the losing end of the battlefield quite early. The tournament’s most improved male player Benjamin Mekdeci finished third in Category A ahead of Mary Fung-A-Fat and Victoria Arjoon.
Akeila Wiltshire was impeccable in category B, winning all her matches against stronger and in some cases older opponents. Wiltshire finished ahead of Alec Melville and Pablio Mundini respectively while Taylor Fernandes finished fourth in the category. Wiltshire was the adjudged most outstanding female player of the tournament, while Fernandes was named most improved female player of the tournament.
Akeila’s younger brother Shomari Wiltshire also won his group, finishing atop the category C standings with an unbeaten record. Matthew Phang who took Wiltshire to five games before conceding, placed second while Mahendra Khusial placed third.
Daniel Islam brandished an array of shots during this tournament and managed to complete an impressive win in category D without losing any of his matches. Islam’s unbeaten record was challenged by second place category D finisher Sarah Lewis who forced a five-game thriller against Islam. Michael Ramroop, one of the players from the National Racquet Centre’s afterschool programme finished third in that category.
Jael Gaskin, another player from the afterschool programme conducted by Level IV Elite coach Carl Ince, placed second to 17-year-old Kelly Ann Latchman. Demetrius De Abreu won category E ahead of Ethan Jonas and Madison Fernandes. Joseph, Xavier, Arjoon and the Wiltshire siblings are expected to be among the prospects that will be named by the Guyana Squash Association in the training squad for the Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Caribbean Junior Squash Championships in Trinidad and Tobago this July. Guyana won the last eight team titles at this event.
1st place: Nyron Joseph
2nd place: Steven Xavier
3rd place: Benjamin Mekdeci
Category B
1st place: Akeila Wiltshire
2nd place: Alec Melville
3rd place: PablioMundini
Category C
1st place: Shomari Wiltshire
2nd place: Matthew Phang
3rd place: MahendraKhusial
Category D
1st place: Daniel Islam
2nd place: Sarah Lewis
3rd place: Michael Ramroop
Category E
1st place: Kelly Ann Latchman
2nd place: Jael Gaskin
3rd place: Gianni Carpenter
Category F
1st place: Demetrius De Abreu
2nd place: Ethan Jonas
3rd place: Madison Fernandes
