Squash team manager pleased with performance at T/dad tourney

Manager of the Guyana Senior Squash Team Ramon Chan-A-Sue says despite the challenges faced during the event, he is pleased with the unit’s showing at the recently concluded Caribbean Senior Squash Championship.

Guyana finished third overall in the Team’s Section in Trinidad and Tobago, with the women’s unit securing the second position and the men’s outfit placing third.

“I thought our team gave an outstanding effort given the challenges we faced at the tournament. The court conditions and some of the injuries the team faced were definitely a challenge for this team but they persevered,” Chan-A-Sue told Stabroek Sport in an exclusive interview.

“While we did not attain our goal of claiming the Overall title, we know we are a few healthy bodies away from do so,” he added.

Questioned about his thoughts on the Guyana Women losing their Team Title, he declared “It’s always disappointing losing, especially the women’s title, since we have such a deep lineup filled with current and former junior Caribbean champions.”

Ramon Chan-A-Sue
Ramon Chan-A-Sue

According to Chan-A-Sue, “However, this year we had a few players coming in with health concerns and the court environment did not suit our games….air conditioned courts…which were way slower than what we play on, and style of play more suited to in Guyana…I know the team will be back stronger next year.”

Quizzed on whether the other nations have narrowed the gap on Guyana, he said on the women’s side, “It has always been a dogfight with Barbados as they have had Karen Meakins, three-time Caribbean champ at the top of their lineup, but now they have two quality juniors who are almost neck-and-neck with her.

“So that makes it more challenging and has negated our depth advantage. If you look at the individual rankings of the tournament, Barbados has three of the top eight players in the rankings but Guyana has the other five positions,” he pointed out. “Unfortunately, two of the top positions are Barbadians. These two countries are by far and away the best women teams in the Caribbean,” the official added.

Chan-A-Sue further indicated that the quality has also improved in the men’s section, with the other teams such as Jamaica and Bermuda adding talent to their roster.

“The men’s side has been a challenge for us for the past two years as some teams have added more talent. Jamaica with its one-two punch of Chris Binnie (6 time Caribbean champ, #77 in the world) and Lewis Walters (2016 Individual runner-up, #118 in the world),” he said.

“Then Bermuda with three current and former professional players in their lineup make it really challenging for us. This is why our original lineup of Sunil Seth, Alex Arjoon, Richard Chin, Jason Khalil and Kristian Jeffery was going to be more dangerous, because we matched up with everyone well,” the veteran competitor said.

“For the teams that had quality players at the top, we could have beaten them with our depth. For the teams that were deep, our depth players were better than them. Unfortunately, that changed with the injury to Sunil Seth. Once we had to move everyone up one spot, we lost that advantage,” he declared.

Queried about the next assignment for the team, Chan-A-Sue said this will be a light year for the seniors. “Their next major event will be the 2017 Senior Caribbean Champs in St Vincent. In between that, we hope a few of the Guyana-based athletes will play some PSA events along with a few training camps organised by the Guyana Squash Association,” he said.