T&T's Seth Thong battled his way to the gold medal in the Boys' Under-13 final of Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Championship at the Indoor Racquet Centre of the Queen's Park Oval in Port-of-Spain yesterday.
The number-one seed, who also won last year, was favoured to cop the title for a second time against Guyana's Mohryan Baksh and he did not disappoint, but it cost him a limb and nail to achieve it 3-2.
In the mouth-watering encounter in front his home crowd, Thong jumped to an early 11-9 advantage in the opening set but Baksh, who went into the match as the second-ranked player in the division, levelled the scores with an 11-6 triumph.
The fluctuating affair favoured Thong in the third set 11-5, before the Guyanese knotted the scores for a second time in the fourth set with an 11-2 victory, to set up a decider in the fifth match, which Thong prevailed in 13-11 for the title.
Meanwhile, Sigourney Williams failed in an attempt at the bronze medal when she was beaten by Savannah Williams of Jamaica in a third-place play-off. After being defeated in the semifinals by Barbados' Sumairaa Suleman on Monday, Williams couldn't cope with the Jamaican, losing in three sets 11-3, 11-5 and 11-3.
Later, another T&T player, Nicola De Verteuil, was also beaten for the third-place consolation medal, going down 11-8, 11-3, 9-11 and 11-8 to Eleanor Hinds of Jamaica.
In the Girls' Under-17 third-place battle, T&T's Chloe Walcott was beaten by Abigail Brewer of Bermuda in five sets, 11-8, 10-12, 11-6, 9-11 and 11-8.