Eight Guyanese have stomped their way into championship matches following successful semi-finals wins on the second day of the 2019 Caribbean Area Squash Association Junior Championship yesterday in Trinidad and Tobago.
The Guyanese head into the final day of the singles category assured of two gold medals after securing two all-Guyanese finals in the boys’ U15 category and the girls’ U17 category respectively.
Those match-ups will see Michael Alphonso, who won gold in the U13 category in 2018 and Nicholas Verwey going head-to-head in the boys’ U15 final while Abosaide Cadogan and Madison Fernandes will battle for supremacy in the girls’ U17 final.
As the script went; first to assert Guyana’s dominance on the day was Christina Fernandes who recorded her second win of the championship, defeating Josie Marie Thong 11-7, 11-1, 11-6 in the girls’ U11 round-robin final. She will take on Phoebe Gittens who is also unbeaten in today’s virtual final.
Mohryan Baksh was also successful in his semi-final match, defeating Vincentian Jaydon Williams 11-8, 11-5, 11-4 in their boys U13 encounter to set up a bout with Trinidadian Seth Thong. Thong defeated Guyanese Louis Dasilva 3-0 in the other semi-final.
Success continued to roll Guyana’s way as Kirsten Gomes, the lone Guyanese contesting the girls’ U15 category, booked her place in the final with an 11-0, 11-6, 11-5 win over Jamaican Savannah Thompson.
The dominance of the South Americans was sustained by Alphonso who accounted for Bajan Aidan Parris 12-10, 11-8, 11-5 in the first semi-final of the boys’ U15 category while fellow Guyanese Verwey came from two sets down to defeat top seed Jace Jervis 9-11, 8-11, 11-7, 13-11, 11-6 to set up the all Guyanese final.
Madison Fernandes continued the South Americans parade of marching into the finals when she defeated top seed Abagail Brewer of Bermuda 12-10, 11-7, 11-6 in the girls’ U17 category. She will face her close mate Cadogan in the final after the latter won the other semi-final with a clinical 11-5, 11-3, 11-7 with over hometown girl Chloe Walcott.
The eighth-championship spot went to Shomari Wiltshire who downed Matthew Elliott 11-4, 11-2, 11-1 in the boys’ U17 division while his countryman Samuel Ince-Carvalhal was not as fortunate as he went down to Bajan Darien Benn 6-11, 11-7, 12-14, 9-11 in the other semi.
