The Guyana Squash Association (GSA) has recently commenced its training of national junior prospects to compete at the Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Caribbean Squash Championships, which will be held in July this year in Guyana.
The association met last weekend to shortlist candidates, the names of whom they have not yet released to the media. However, most of the team began fitness training and conditioning runs at the National Park Circuit on Monday, April 5th.
Training sessions are scheduled to continue on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, April 7th,8th and 9th respectively. Since the tournament will be held locally, Guyana will have the opportunity to field a full quota of players in both the team and individual categories.
National coach Carl Ince told Guyana Times International Sport (GTIS) on April 5th that the squad will be thoroughly prepared this year. Ince said that since some of the players will be participating in the Women’s World Junior team and Individual Championships in the U.S.A. at July month end, they will be using CASA as a warm-up.
The players who are expected to compete in that tournament are Keisha and Kayla Jeffrey, Mary Fung-A-Fat and Ashley Khalil. However, Ince said, the remainder of the shortlisted squad will also be preparing thoroughly for CASA, as they have a tough task as defending champions.
“Since we are the defending champions, I’d like to think that all the other Caribbean countries would relish the opportunity to defeat us at home,” Ince said.
Ince said that there is some amount of pressure that local players will feel, having to hold their own at home, but they should be fuelled by the fact that they are the six-time Caribbean overall champions at Junior CASA. Crowd support is also another advantage that the local players should have at this year’s tournament.
The tournament will be held at the Georgetown Club Squash Court, as well as the recently-completed Public Squash Courts on Woolford Avenue. Some of the players who were expected to commence training include Taylor Fernandes, Akeila and Larrissa Wiltshire, Lydia Alphonso, Gabrielle Fraser, Rebeeca Lowe, Savannah Mendes, Ashley and Jason Ray Khalil, Mary Fung-A-Fat, Victoria Arjoon, Joven Benn, Steven Xavier, Nyron Joseph, Ben Mekdeci, Patrick Fraser and Deje Dias.
