Players performed “beyond expectations”
Manager of the Guyana Junior Squash Team to the recent Caribbean Junior Squash Championships in the Cayman Islands Garfield Wiltshire said the recent performance of securing Guyana’s 12th overall Team Title was outstanding and that the players performed beyond expectations.
Guyana clinched their 12th Overall Team Championships after successfully retaining the boy’s team title and finishing second in the girls Team campaign.
The Guyanese secured the boys’ title by defeating hosts the Cayman Islands 4-1 while the girls lost to Barbados 2-3.
In invited comment, Wiltshire told Stabroek News: “The team performed excellently and in some cases beyond expectations.”
Asked about the significance of the retaining the overall team title and what it means for the sport both locally and internationally, he said: “It shows that the hard work being done by the executives of the Guyana Squash Association and by the coaches especially national Coach Carl Ince who continues to reap rewards.
“It means that Guyana continues to earn the respect of local and Caribbean squash community,” he added.
Quizzed whether the other nations have narrowed the gap on Guyana, he said: “The other nations definitely have narrowed the gap. There has not been much of a gap for about five years now but through hard work and dedication by our coaches and our athletes we still somehow manage to win.
“The standard of play at the event continues to improve as more players are going off to camps in the USA throughout the year and some players are in boarding schools and colleges in the USA and Canada.”
According to Wiltshire: “The association, with the help of our corporate sponsor Digicel and national Coach Carl Ince continues to run its schools programme at the National Racquet Centre on Friday afternoons and its Junior programme on Saturday mornings at the Georgetown Club and with the building of more courts the GSA hopes to take the sport to more regions in Guyana”.
Asked what is next on the international circuit for the junior players, Wiltshire said “Two of our top junior players Taylor Fernandes and Ben Mekdeci will be participating in the Junior Pan American squash Championships scheduled for Drexler University USA from August 22 – 28, 2016”.