By Rawle Toney in Birmingham (Team Guyana Press Attaché)
While it was a tough outing for Shomari Wiltshire and Ashley Khalil, Jason-Ray Khalil had an impressive start to his Commonwealth Games squash campaign in Birmingham, England, yesterday.
At the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, Jason-Ray Khalil was booted in the first round of the singles competition by former world-rater, Campbell Grayson, of New Zealand.
However, this time around, Khalil showed why he’s one of the country’s top players, when he stormed from behind to defeat Paul Kadoma of Uganda 3 – 2 on opening day of individual competition for the sport at the University of Birmingham Squash Courts.
Khalil lost the opening set 12 – 14 but bounced back to win the second 11 – 9. He would lose the third set 9 – 11 before rebounding to claim the other two sets 11 – 4, 11 – 9. With the win, Khalil advanced to the Round-of-32, where he will come up against Malaysia’s Eain Yow today.
Meanwhile, his sister, Ashley, playing at her second Commonwealth Games, was knocked-out of the competition after a hard-fought 2 – 3 defeat to Sri Lanka’s Yeheni Kuruppu.
The 18-year-old Kuruppu had the Guyanese down 4 – 11, 9 – 11, but Khalil, a former national champion who reached the round of 32 at the last Commonwealth Games, clawed her way back into the match, using her experience and brilliant display of squash to even the games 2 – 2, taking both sets 11 – 9, 11 – 3
In the fifth set, however, Khalil could not keep up with the much younger Kuruppu, who took the deciding set 4 – 11.
Junior Caribbean Squash Champion, Shomari Wiltshire, tasting competition at the Commonwealth Games for the first time, had a good showing against Ravindu Laksiri of Sri Lanka, but only managed to win one set.
Laksiri is one of, or if not Sri Lanka’s best squash player, and his experience showed against the 18-year-old Wiltshire.
The Sri Lankan had Wiltshire down 2 -11, 1-11, but buoyed by the support of his peers in the stands, along with Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Charles Ramson Jr, this year’s Caribbean junior champion won the third set 11 – 7.
But the cheers didn’t last long. Laksiri graciously took the fourth 3 – 11.
Next player up for Guyana is Mary Fung-A-Fat who will face New Zealand’s Katelyn Watts today.
After the day’s play, Coach Garfield Wiltshire spoke profoundly of the team’s performance , while lauding Jason-Ray’s performance.
“The court is totally different and we’re playing against players who are world-ranked; a lot of them are top 50 in the world. It’s a learning experience and we can only get better from coming to these games and matching our talent with players from around the world,” Wiltshire said.
The senior Wiltshire, a squash extraordinaire, said his son, Shomari, who is preparing to make the transition from junior to senior competition, will need as much exposure at higher competition, like the Commonwealth Games, to fortify his place amongst the Caribbean’s top players.
He added, “Obviously, any exposure at any higher-level competition, will only make your game improve, so, we’re looking to see based on his performances here (at the Commonwealth games) and at the Junior World Championship. We’ll see how that goes and if he can take that form into the Senior Caribbean Championships in Jamaica, from August 21 – 28.”
