The Guyana Squash Association (GSA) has shortlisted a national training squad comprising 21 junior players to prepare for the Caribbean Area Squash Association’s (CASA) Junior Caribbean Championships which will be held in Trinidad and Tobago July 21-29th.
The squad includes reigning and two-time Caribbean champion Nyron Joseph who won the Toucan Industries Easter Junior Skill Level tournament last month and four-time Caribbean champion Victoria Arjoon, who plays squash at St George’s high school in the USA. Apart from those two players, the squad also includes former Caribbean champions Akeila Wiltshire, Benjamin Mekdeci and Jean Claude Jeffrey.
Eighteen-year old junior squash star Jason Ray Khali,l who won the Ansa McAl Senior Easter tournament last weekend, has not been named to the side. Khalil, a former Caribbean under 17 champion, will be celebrating his 19th birthday just days before the commencement of the tournament and will therefore be ineligible to compete in this under 19 competition.
According to GSA officials, the final team to compete at the Caribbean championships will be named at the tournament in Trinidad to facilitate the inclusion of overseas Guyanese players. The final team for the team tournament will comprise seven boys and seven girls. Guyana has won the last eight editions of the Junior CASA overall team titles.
The squad has already begun training six days a week with hopes of extending Guyana’s unprecedented Junior CASA win streak. The regimen includes three miles runs every Monday and Wednesday around the National Park’s inner circuit, and fitness training with Topend Performance System’s training instructor KezqweyahYisrael on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Additionally, members of the squad are required to attended racquet work and training sessions at the Georgetown Club on Fridays and Saturdays.
GSA has also introduced a new component of the developmental process to nurture its junior players. Fourteen players were also identified by the GSA to work along with the training squads. According to GSA officials, the developmental squad comprised the playersthat the selection panel felt had the potential to train alongside the national prospects for the holistic development of the juniors.
