Puerto Rico dominate hosts Dom. Rep. at C/bean Junior, Cadet C/ships

Esmerlyn Castro
Esmerlyn Castro

Puerto Rico dominated hosts and arch rivals the Dominican Republic at the ongoing 2019 Caribbean Junior and Cadet Championships.

The championships, which are to be used as a qualifier for the Junior Pan Am games, saw Puerto Rico carting off six gold medals in the teams and doubles events compared to the host’s four. 

In the boys Under-18 team final Puerto Rico defeated the hosts 3-1 to cop gold. Puerto Rico in the semis defeated Barbados 3-0 while Dom. Rep. accounted for Trinidad and Tobago by a similar margin.

Mariano Lockward

The hosts, spearheaded by senior Caribbean gold medalist Esmerlyn Castro in the girls Under-18 teams round-robin final defeated both Puerto Rico and French Guiana by 3-0 score lines to underline their supremacy.    Meanwhile, action in the boys under – 15 teams round robin final saw the Puerto Ricans ending unbeaten after four rounds to clinch gold ahead of the host (silver) and St Lucia (bronze). Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica were the other two teams to contest. 

The girls under – 15 title was also pocketed by Puerto Rico who edged out Jamaica for gold  with the hosts placing third while Trinidad and Tobago landed at the bottom of the table. 

Interestingly, the under – 18 doubles and mixed doubles categories were swept by the hosts while Puerto Rico captured the spoils in the under – 15 category. 

According on the IFFT website, Mariano Lockward and Pedro Cabrera delivered the gold for the host in the boys under – 18 doubles final after the pair defeated Marcus Smith and Ramon Maxwell of Barbados 3-0. The girls equivalent saw Castro and Dahyana Rojas defeating their countrywomen Rosa Torres and Estefany Rodriguez 3-1 in the final. 

Castro and Lockward captured another doubles gold by accounting for Gabriel Perez and Edmarie 3-1 in the mixed doubles final.

It was all Puerto Rico in the Under – 15 doubles category as Sebastian Gallo and Jan Gonzalez defeated Nicholas Lee and Jamalli Mauge of Trinidad and Tobago 3-0 in the boys doubles final while Zulnamy Soto and Yoarills Figueroa defeated their Puerto Rican counterparts, Kristal Melendez and Alondra Rodriguez 3-0 in the girls under –15 final. 

The all Puerto Rico mixed doubles final went to Gallo and Soto who downed Derek Valentine and  Melendez 3-2 in the final.