Commendable showing by Barbados at CASA

By Morissa Lindsay

Team Barbados captured silver overall behind host country Guyana as the 2022 Junior Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Championships concluded on Saturday at the Georgetown Club Facility and National Racquet Centre in Woolford Avenue, Non Pareil Park, Guyana.

The team returned home last night all smiles and despite losing their overall title won in 2019, Barbados led by team captains Darien Benn and Sumairaa Suleman was nothing short of outstanding, competing in the Under-19 age group.

The 17-year-old Suleman reigned as the most outstanding female player in the Caribbean when she defeated home town girl Kirsten Gomes 3-2 in what was an exciting final. Unfortunately, Benn missed out on completing the clean sweep for Barbados having lost in straight sets (3-0) to the dominant Shomari Wiltshire also of Guyana.

Overall Barbados accounted for one gold and two silver medals thanks also to Eboni Atherley with a commendable showing to reach the Under-17 Girls final and one bronze compliments Daniel Sealy (the son of iconic national squash player Mark Sealy) during the individual competitions. Additionally, Under-17 Boys player Alex Stewart and Under-13 competitor Ben Shepherd finished just outside of the podium in fourth position while in the Under-13 Girls age group Lena Hamati placed fifth.

Meanwhile, in the team competitions, Barbados’ females and males finished second overall as they lost 4-1 respectively to Guyana in both categories of the team competition. The next best showing was from newly crowned overall champions Guyana with an undefeated record in both males and females to extend their success to 13 titles in total.

When the curtains came down on proceedings it was the Guyanese who tallied a whopping 20 points as they edged the Barbadian team by four points as they accumulated 16 points to end their outing in second position while the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago, as well as Bermuda, finished third with ten points each in the standings. Jamaica scored eight points, Cayman Islands fell just one short on seven and the British Virgin Islands scored three points and rounded out the table which was very competitive.

The Barbadian team was coached by Aidan Harrison and sponsored this year by Lululemon who provided the uniforms and along with other brands such as Deloitte and Oliver have every reason to feel proud given that this was their first year back out on the squash court playing competitively because of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Harrison since returning to Barbados with the junior side is hard at work with the senior players as they leave this Saturday for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham which consist of several disciplines. The Barbados Olympic Association will be sending representatives in netball, cricket, squash, badminton and athletics.

The next Junior CASA scheduled for 2023 is expected to be held in St Vincent and the Grenadines or the Cayman Islands but hasn’t yet been confirmed. Meanwhile, the seniors will travel from England to Jamaica next month for CASA which is slated to run from August 21 to 28th. morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb