All-Jamaica squash champs begins today

THE JAMAICA Squash Association (JSA) was yesterday putting the final touches on the start lists and the venue at the Liguanea Club for today’s start of the 45th All-Jamaica Junior and Senior Squash Championships.

Action will get under way with the juniors at 11 a.m., with three matches playing simultaneously on courts one, two, and three. A male and female junior champion will be known on Monday at the end of their two-day championships.

Some of the outstanding juniors in the championships include Mehar Trehan, the reigning Caribbean under-17 champion, who will be competing in the under-19 age group. She will, however, get stiff competition from well-known national players Sanjana Nallapati and Elle Wilson for the under-19 girls’ title. The juniors will compete in the uner-13, under-15, under-17 and under-19 age groups.

When the seniors take to the court tomorrow, the competition level will be even greater. Female defending champion Mary Mahfood is expected to display her speed and power game again against her opponents.

On the men’s side, number-one seed Louis Walters will seek to keep his ranking while number-two seed Bruce Burrowes and number-three seed Tahjia Lumbley, who has been training abroad, will be aiming to overtake him.

There will also be competition for the skill groups such as Men’s B, Over-40 and Over-50 and Women’s B, Over-40 and maybe Over-50.

Karen Anderson, president of the Jamaica Squash Association explained the timing of the championships this year.

“This is the 45th anniversary of the All-Jamaica Championships. It’s the pre-eminent event on our Jamaica Squash calendar and it’s always a look forward to (event). This year we moved it into March around Spring Break time for the Americans, so that they could also all participate and mainly because we wanted it to be a little bit closer to the calendar of events in the summer time.”

GraceKennedy Capital Management, Boilerco, Binds Designs, and WATA are the sponsors of this year’s championships.