Jamaica captured three silver medals in the doubles matches of the National Lotteries Authority Junior CASA (Caribbean Area Squash Association) Championship on Wednesday in St Vincent and the Grenadines. Jamaica has the distinction of being the only country to have all its teams represented in the three doubles finals.
In the Girls Doubles match, Savannah Thomson and Catherine Risden lost to Eboni Atherley and Sumairaa Suleman of Barbados by a 2-0 (9-11, 8-11) scoreline. The games were keenly contested but Jamaica could not get over the win line on any of them.
The Mixed Doubles went to Nicholas Verwey and Kirsten Gomes of Guyana over Alex Chin and Sanjana Nallapati by another 2-0 (8-11, 7-11) score.
Tobias Levy and Lucas Thomson lost to the Barbados pair of Aidan Parris and Alex Stewart 2-1 (9-11, 11-5, 5-11) in the Boys Doubles match up. Lucas and Thomson did win one of the three games played.
Karen Anderson, president of the Jamaica Squash Association congratulated the Jamaican players on the doubles teams for making it to all three finals.
“We had some really good expectations, obviously on the day you are not sure if you will get the results but we really thought that we had a good chance. To get three teams in the finals, that was not expected and so we are very excited about that. Obviously disappointed that we did not win even one match but it’s the first time for a lot of them playing doubles and its also the first time for it (doubles) being at junior CASA. So for us to say that we got three teams in there, it says a lot, in fact I got a message from the secretary of the PanAm region, saying congrats on getting three teams into the finals. No other country was able to do that. Obviously we didn’t win one. Disappointed, yes but I think we have a lot to build on for next year so we are excited for what that holds” said Anderson.
This brings the total number of medals for Jamaica at the championship to six after winning three individual medals earlier in the week when Sanjana Nallapati bagged a silver after losing to Eboni Atherley of Barbados 3-0 (11-7, 11-4, 11-4) in the U17 division. Mehar Trehan bagged a bronze after defeating Safirah Summer of Guyana 3-0 (11-6, 11-7, 11-5) also in the U17 division. The other medal, a bronze came by way of an all Jamaica match-up with Savannah Thomson getting the better of Catherine Risden in an very competitive five-setter in the U19 division with scores of 14-12, 7-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-8.
The team matches consisting of five players from each country began on Thursday and continues into Friday.
