Guyana start defence of several titles today
LOCAL squash players will be seeking to retain the overall team, girls’ and individual titles from today, when the Caribbean Junior Squash Championships serve off today in Bermuda.

Guyana are the defending overall team champions and well as the girls’ team champions. The locals also won four individual titles last year, but will only be defending three of them.

The 14-member team which comprises seven girls and an equal amount of boys left Guyana on Monday and Tuesday. The players are anxiously awaiting the start of this year’s championships, since they will be seeking to make a clean sweep of the girls’, boys’ and overall team championships, having placed second in the boys’ team event last year.

In their quest for glory, the girls’ team will be seeking to win the team title for the fifth time in seven years, while the boys’ team will be seeking to win the team title which eluded them last year.

The girls’ team comprises Victoria Arjoon, Ashley DeGroot, Mary Fung-A-Fat, Ashley Khalil, Keisha Jeffrey, Kayla Jeffrey and Daina King, while the boys’ team is made up of Nyron Joseph, Jean-Claude Jeffrey, Jason Khalil, Deje Dias, Alexander Arjoon, Oliver Downes and Raphael DeGroot.

Victoria Arjoon who will contest the girls’ Under-13 category is the defending champion and much is expected of her again this year.

Fung-A-Fat, who won the Under-13 title last year will this year be seeking to win the Under-15 title this time around as she has advanced in age. She has promised to `bring home the bacon’, and is ranked number one.

However, she has a stumbling block in her way in the form of compatriot Ashley Khalil.

Ashley DeGroot, who is a relative newcomer to the team, will also contest the Under-15 category and can spring surprises since she has been around the sport for quite a while.

Xavier, a multi-talented athlete, who is a hockey goalkeeper for the Everest Hikers Club and who will contest the Under-17 age group will be seeking to take her game to another level and will surely be an asset in the girls’ team event.

Kayla Jeffrey, a powerful striker of the ball who is capable of holding her own even against more senior opponents, will do battle in the Under-17 age group along with her twin sister Keisha who is the youngest player in the history of the sport locally to win the national ladies’ title. She accomplished this feat at last year’s national championships. She was just 14 years of age.

Keisha is also a former two-time Caribbean champion who lost to Ashley Khalil in last year’s girls’ Under-15 final at the national junior championships.

Daina King, with years of experience in the sport, will be a force to be reckoned with in the Under-19 age group.

For the boys, Singh who won the Under-13 title last year will be seeking to pull off a surprise win in the Under-15 age group since he has advanced in age and experience.

Deje Dias, who helped the boys’ team to a second-place finish last year, is strongly fancied to win the Under-17 individual title, but will have his work cut out if he is to get past compatriot Alexander Arjoon who dominated the Under-15 category in 2006 and 2007.

Downes who recorded several victories over Arjoon on the local scene will be depending on his stamina and consistency to get past the aforementioned duo on his way to championship honours.

Raphael DeGroot has been around the sport for quite some time and much is expected from him in the Under-19 division.

English Level IV qualified coach Carl Ince, who has been preparing the team for over four months for these championships and who has raised the level of local squash players including Nicolette Fernandes over the past 11 years that he has been at the helm of the coaching staff, is the Team coach, while Robert Fernandes and Denise Jeffrey are the boys’ and girls’ managers respectively.