High on the agenda of the Guyana Squash Association (GSA) this year are plans to send a junior boys team to the 2020 Pan Am games.
“We want to send a boys’ junior team to the Pan Am junior championships in El Salvador, which will be another important tournament for us,” David Fernandes, President of the GSA told Stabroek Sport in a recent interview.
Fernandes made those comments in the context of creating more opportunities for the likes of Shomari Wiltshire, Michael Alphonso and some of the other local junior talents to be exposed to high-level squash.
He also declared 2020 as the year during which Guyana could possibly regain their junior Caribbean team’s overall title which the national side last won in 2016.
“This year, we go to junior [Caribbean Area Squash Association] in Bermuda and I think that Guyana has the ability this year to regain the overall team’s title. So, we will be working feverishly towards that goal,” the GSA president said.
The senior edition of the tournament will be contested in Jamaica. Fernandes disclosed that no definitive decision was made on other tournament opportunities for the seniors outside of the senior CASA tournament but a number of options are still open.
Fantastic
Meanwhile, the GSA president, while briefly assessing the output of the preceding year, spoke well of the accomplishments of a few of the players, particularly Nicolette Fernandes, Wiltshire and Abosaide Cadogan, all of whom copped gold at the Caribbean level in 2019.
“2019 was a fantastic year for Guyana’s squash. The women’s team went to Pan Ams and did very well; they represented Guyana more than adequately. We also went to Trinidad for the junior CASA tournament and there we did extremely well.
“Shomari and Abosaide were unbelievable in the way they played in that tournament. In fact, our boys Under-15 Michael Alphonso played well but generally, our boys’ team had put in a lot of work and proved to be competitive in the Caribbean and beyond,” Fernandes said.
Touching on Nicolette Fernandes’ remarkable feat to capture gold at the 2019 senior edition of CASA, the GSA president highlighted that her efforts aided in helping to secure the overall crown.
“Senior was the highlight of the year. Having Nicolette come out of retirement to participate in the tournament was great for us and she was able to win another individual title… and with the vets that played for our team, we won the overall team title which we hadn’t done for a while so it was really good for Guyana.”
The association will kick off the 2020 season shortly.
