QUITO, Ecuador,  CMC – Barbadian squash players struggled at the 2009 Pan American Championship this past weekend and Karen Meakins was their only player escaping first-round elimination.

Meakins outgunned Argentina’s Augustina Gomez in her opening match on Saturday but encountered top seed and defending champion Samantha Teran, of Mexico, in her second-round match and lost in straight games.

Her teammates Mark Sealy and Gavin Cumberbatch both exited in the men’s first round.

Nine-time Barbados national champion Meakins dismissed Gomez 12-10, 11-2, 11-3 in her first-round encounter but was ousted in Sunday’s second round by Teran.

World No.17 Teran, who was 2006 Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games runner-up to Guyanese Nicolette Fernandes, won the match 11-4, 11-7, 11-4.

In the men’s first round, El Salvador’s Fernando Arrieta beat the veteran Sealy 10-12, 11-9, 11-6, 11-8 and Paraguay’s Bruno Alvarenga outplayed Cumberbatch 11-4, 11-5, 11-4.

The Barbadians also lost their doubles outings – their men going out when Guatemala beat them 10-11, 11-10, 11-10 and Brazil defeated the Barbados mixed doubles team 11-9, 11-9.