The Digicel Caribbean Junior Squash Championships Team Competition served off on Monday, July 9th with the singles and team matches being played at the National Racquet Centre and the Georgetown Club respectively. After dominant performances in the singles stage, Guyana seemed to transfer the gained momentum and confidence to the team matches when they played against Bermuda.
Newly crowned Under – 15 singles champion, Nyron Joseph, demonstrated that he deserves that title when defeated Kion Knights in straight sets – 12/10 ,11/6 and 11/4. Jason Ray Khalil also won his match against D’Vario Thompson, but had to dig deep since his competitor did not make the encounter a walkover. Khalil had a gruelling 5 sets to defeat Thompson but endured to win – 16/18, 11/6, 5/11, 11/9 and 11/5. Ben Mekdeci also overcame Dylan Pratt to give the boys a 3-2 victory in the first round of the team championships. Ashley Khalil dominated Alyssa Brewer in the first match of the female category. Victoria Arjune and Larissa Wiltshire also recorded victories, while Mary Fung-a-Fat completed the 4-I first stage win after her competitor failed to turn up giving her a walkover.
The team from Trinidad and Tobago has two male teams in this year’s championships, and judging from their impressive performances – winning straight sets against Jamaica, Barbados and The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States – seems to be the one which Guyana will need to pay keen attention to.
Finally, it should be noted that the conditions and courts favour the locals since their counterparts are accustomed to playing on air conditioned courts. The heat has been a major factor in the championships thus far, but being the best junior team in the Caribbean for a number of years in addition to the early victories attained in the singles category will serve as a confidence booster to the Guyanese representatives.Play resumes on Tuesday July 11 through Thursday July 14.
By – Andrew Ross
National Schools Basketball Festival 2011: Linden Technical Institute are Champions!
Linden Technical Institute (LTI) showed why they made it to the final round of the Youth Basketball Guyana/ National Sports Commission’s; National Schools Basketball Festival 2011. The team from the mining town showed their dominance early into the first half by going on a 12-3 run against New Amsterdam Multilateral (NA Multi) out of the Ancient County. Though there were some spirited attempts on the part of the Berbice representatives, the Lindeners played a tough defensive game to come out on top. LTI out rebounded NA Multi on the defensive boards and even executed several steals to maintain majority ball possession in what seemed like a one sided affair by halftime. In the second half the Lindeners seemed to be shooting the basketball at will as they grabbed several offensive boards resulting in second, third and even forth shot opportunities. Geoffrey LaRose won over the crowd with his heroics on his way to a top score of 28 and 13 rebounds in favor of the Region 10 team. In the end the scoreboard read 73-35, a 38 point margin of victory for LTI. The Champions of Champions trophy was sponsored by strong supporters of local basketball; Haynes Foundation and made by the Port Morant Technical Institute.
Meanwhile Director of Sports Neil Kumar congratulated the winning teams on their performance throughout the tournament and moreso during the finals. He also recognized the importance of the Basketball Festival in unlocking talent of youths at the regional level through the schools. Kumar also expressed confidence that the talent witnessed throughout the competition will benefit the national team in the end since “these kids will perform and take Guyana far”.
Kumar encouraged the students to continue playing basketball since in the near future one night a week will be set aside to have basketball played in the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall televised on a monthly basis much like the highly successful Friday Night Fights. Plans are also on stream to have the annual festival evolve into a Caribbean tournament in order to provide much needed regional exposure to players at a earlier age.
Despite their loss to LTI, NA Multi secured the Division 2 title after edging city side Guyana Education Trust College 45-43 earlier in the evening.
Over 50 school teams participated in the festival which ran for six weeks at venues across the country.
– Andrew Ross