De­fend­ing cham­pi­on Chris Richards Jr, and his main ri­val Zi­co Cor­reira seem set to go head-to-head af­ter the open­ing day of the Re­pub­lic Bank 20th edi­tion of the T&T Ju­nior Golf Open cham­pi­onships at the Ch­aguara­mas Golf Course, Ch­aguara­mas on Wednesday.

Cor­reira, who won the Cham­pi­onship flight ti­tle at the T&T Golf Open at St An­drew’s Golf Course in Mo­ka, Mar­aval from March 24 -27, shoot a 71 to take the ear­ly lead in the boys 16-18 age group by two strokes from Ay­den Ali (73) and three strokes back is reign­ing cham­pi­on Richards Jr, who shot a 74, with Alex Kan­goo (77), Adam Fur­longe (95) and Clarence Gor­don (114) the round off the top seed po­si­tions.

Cor­reira, no doubt would be look­ing to re­peat or im­prove per­for­mances from the T&T open, while Richards Jr, who was third be­hind Cor­reira but won the Pointe-a-Pierre and South Ju­nior ti­tles in Feb­ru­ary with a 71 would be seek­ing to re­pro­duce that score over the next two days.

A new ju­nior cham­pi­on will be crowned among the girls af­ter de­fend­ing cham­pi­on and win­ner of the Pointe-a-Pierre cham­pi­on Chole Ajo­dah, who shot an 81, will not be par­tic­i­pat­ing be­cause of ex­ams. From Wednes­day’s play in the girls 16-18 cat­e­go­ry, Ja­da Charles shot an 85, in a sim­i­lar fash­ion to her third-place Sec­ond Flight score at the Pointe-a-Pierre Open in Feb­ru­ary. Charles is al­so the reign­ing Brechin Cas­tle Open cham­pi­on.

Re­pub­lic bank T&T Golf

Ju­nior Open

First day scores

Boys 16-18 yrs

• ↓Zi­co Cor­reia – 71, Ay­den Ali – 73, Chris Richards Jnr – 74, Alex Kan­goo – 77, Adam Fur­longe – 95 and Clarence Gor­don – 114

Boys 14-15

• ↓Ross Ramkissoon – 77, Adam Lum Hee – 98, Daniel Ali – 105

Boys 11-13

• ↓Isi­ah Row­ley – 83

Girls 16 – 18

• ↓Ja­da Charles - 85

Girls 14 – 15

• ↓Elise La Bor­de – 95, Na­talya Ram­jag - 102

Girls 11-13

• ↓Madi­son Davis – 108, Charis­sa Gor­don - 131