Seth Thong and Anthony Allum won T&T’s first gold medal at the Junior Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Championships when they won the boys’ Doubles at the South Sound Squash Club in the Cayman Islands on Wednesday night.
Facing off with British Virgin Islands’ Henderson brothers, Daniel and Oliver, in the eight-team tournament decider, the T&T pair of Thong and Allum triumphed 11-6, 11-10 in 27 minutes to secure the gold medal.
When the tournament served off with quarterfinal matches earlier in the day, Thong and Allum overcame St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Aiden De Freitas, and Jayden George 10-11, 11-7, 11-7 before beating Guyana’s Shiloh Asregado and Justin Ten Pow, the second-ranked duo, 11-7, 11-9 in their semifinal.
The Hendersons slammed Jamaicans Cole Brown and Max Henzell 11-0, 11-2 in their quarterfinal followed by an 11-4, 11-6 victory against Bermudans Andrew Cox, and Ethan Rosorea in their semifinals.
In the girls Doubles, T&T’s Gia Ghuran and Aaniyah Ramdeen were upended at the opening quarterfinal stage, 2-11, 0-11 in ten minutes by Guyana’s Emily Funhg A Fat, and Kaylee Lowe and in the Mixed Doubles, Ross D’Juran and Josie Thong were ousted by Jamaicans’ Ethan Miller, and Elie Wilson 8-11, 9-11 in 15 minutes.
T&T men, women win Team openers
The Teams competition served off yesterday with T&T getting the better of Bermuda 22-12 in their boys’ Group A opener led by wins from Evan Ghuran, Ross D’Juran, Thong and Allum.
Ghuran rallied for a 9-11, 11-6, 11-7, 8-11, 11-7 entertaining come-from-behind win over Kaiden De Silva in their Under-11 duel; D’Juran crushed Mason Smith 11-2, 11-3, 11-4 in their U-15 meeting; Thong outclassed Andrew Cox 11-3, 11-4, 11-4 in the first U-19 match-up while Allum beat Eli Carpol in the second U-19 match, 11-5, 11-5, 11-5.
The Bermuda team got wins from Benjamin Sherratt, 11-3, 11-5, 11-7 over T&T’s Vithala Chattergoon in the U-13 age group and Owen Rosorea, who beat Matteo Felician 9-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-5 in their U-17 encounter.
In their second match yesterday, T&T also came up trumps by beating Guyana, 20-13. Thong exacted revenge for his loss in the U-19 Singles final to Louis Da Silva with a 9-11, 11-4, 8-11, 11-5, 11-6 triumph; Ross D’Juran scolded Justin Ten Pow in their U-15 match, 11-5, 12-10, 11-1; Felician overcame Brenno Da Silva 11-5, 8-11, 11-5, 14-12 in the U-17 division, and Allum humbled Shiloh Asregado 11-6, 11-1, 11-5 in the second U-19s clash.
Guyana got their wins through Zion Hickerson, who beat Evan Ghuran 11-4, 11-6, 11-4 in their U-11 match, and Ethan Bulkan beat Coen Mack 11-2, 11-2, 11-1 in the U-13 division.
Guyana had earlier defeated Jamaica 25-5, while Bermuda won against Jamaica in their second match.
Today, T&T boys come up against Jamaica in their final pool match.
In Group B, St Vincent and the Grenadines beat Cayman Islands 20-11 and British Virgin Islands 20-10, while the latter outplayed Barbados 20-13 before the Bajans topped Cayman Islands 20-11.
In the girls’ Team competition, T&T women also started their six-team round-robin series with an impressive 201-0 beating of Jamaica.
Josie Thong led the way for T&T via her 11-3, 11-6, 11-9 beating of Priya Stoddart in their U-17 clash while Aaniyah Ramdeen won her U-15 meeting with Carenya Singh 11-4, 11-3, 11-8, and Gia Ghuran overwhelmed Marley Price 11-4, 11-3, 13-11 and Lara Allum won her U-11 contest by default.
For Jamaica, Mehar Trehan whipped Elise Mathura 11-1, 11-3, 11-3 and Sanjana Nallapti defeated Saanvi Chattergoon 11-3, 11-2, 11-4.
Last night, the T&T women faced Cayman Islands, while in the other matches yesterday, Guyana crushed Cayman Islands 30-2 and Bermuda, while Barbados punished Bermuda 30-3 and Jamaica.
Today, the T&T women play Guyana from 9 am and Barbados from 3 pm before ending their five-team round-robin campaign against Bermuda on Saturday morning from 8.30 am.
During the individual competition, Seth Thong and Gia Ghuran secured silver medals, while T&T also earned two bronze.
Thong was edged in a gruelling five-setter to Guyana’s Louis Da Silva 11-9, 6-11, 13-11, 11-13, 11-9 in 72 minutes in the boys U-19 final while Gia Ghuran went under 11-5, 11-0, 11-4 in the Under-13 final against top seed British Virgin Islands’ Delilah Grace Pease.
Aaniyah Ramdeen got bronze in the U-13 girls’ competition as well as her win against Morgan Daniel 9-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7, 14-12 while Josie Thong defeated Bermuda’s Somers’ Stevenson in the girls’ U-17 Singles bronze medal match 11-7, 11-2, 11-6.
