IN ACCORDANCE with an article published by the World Squad Federation (WSF), Guyana’s highly talented junior unit has impressed the organization and believes the nation can be elevated to the forefront of the sport over the next decade.
Top of that junior category are people like Shomari Wiltshire, Michael Alphonso, Abosaide Cadogan and Kristen Gomes, who won their respective categories at the 2019 Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Games.
What was commendable was Wiltshire’s under-17 category victory which saw them drop just one game in the tournament. He has captured all junior titles since the U-11 category and also had an outstanding season outside the Caribbean.
The WSF chose the driving force behind the development of these top junior players is National Coach Carl Ince. Ince, who has been a part of Guyana’s squash unit for some time, is a Level 4 England Elite Squash Certified Instructor.
In the article entitled ‘State of Squash – Guyana’, the Secretary of the Guyana Squash Association, Lorraine Ince-Carvalhal, describes his contribution to the GSA as ” immeasurable ”.
WSF also noted that the nation’s senior team is also very strong, with the men’s and women’s side taking clean sweeps at the 2019 CASA event.
Unfortunately, the impact of the COVID-19 has put a peg into the continued development of the Sport, like many others. In May 2020, CASA announced that they had canceled their Caribbean Championship and therefore forced the cancellation of all Squash events in the Caribbean Area.
It was only before the pandemic that Guyana rose that it could host the BCQS International Masters and the annual Bounty Farm handicap tournaments.
The notice on the CASA website read: “The Caribbean Area Squash Association’s top priority is the health and well-being of all athletes, officials, coaches and parents, or otherwise known as the” CASA Family “.
As a result, the Caribbean Area Squash Association Executive has made the following decisions in the best interest of our family, as it relates to CASA Junior 2020 (Bermuda) and Advanced CASA 2020 (Jamaica) due to the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV -2) on the CASA Region. ”
This included: “Postponement of Junior Caribbean Squash Individual XXXX a
Team Championships scheduled for 19 – 25 July 2020 in Hamilton, Bermuda, until 2021. XXVI Advanced Caribbean Individual and Squash Team Championships, scheduled for 15 – 23 August 2020 in Kingston, Jamaica, are postponed until 2021. ”
“Doubles will be introduced at the 2021 Junior Championships as planned for the 2020 Championships and age groups will remain the same as proposed at the 2018. AGM.”
Meanwhile, the GSA, led by David Fernandes, has moved on quite successfully and is currently trying to integrate squash with WSF’s pandemic guidelines that have proven to be challenging, but very achievable.