Ricky Romascindo of St. Gabriel’s Primary and Ngina Garnett of Success Elementary emerged as Best Boy and Best Girl respectively in the recently held 2016 Guyana Tennis Association Mini Tennis Red Ball competition at the Transport and Harbours Sports Club.
The competition, which was conducted by National Junior Coordinator, Shelly Daly-Ramdyhan, attracted 23 boys and four girls, which she lamented is a far cry from competitions in recent years which attracted substantially more girls than boys.
The four girls- Ngina Garnett, Maliyah Rambarran of New Guyana School, Akeela August of Buxton Youth Developers and Ciara Bathija- only played one round of a total of six matches where Garnett prevailed unbeaten with three match wins and Rambarran runner-up with two. Akeela August won one match and Ciara Bathija failed to chalk up a victory.
The boys endured a total of 10 rounds of 56 matches for a winner to be declared. In the end, the four finalists were Ricky Romascindo of St. Gabriel’s Primary, Maxim Leacock of St. Paul’s Primary, Kemo Prince of Buxton Youth Developers and Wade Beckles of Marian Academy. Being tied at 2-1 for the match win-loss ratio, the games win-loss ratio was applied where Romascindo edged out Leacock to cop the top spot with a ratio of 17-10 to Leacock’s 17-12 with Prince and Beckles 13-13 and 4-17 respectively.
The trophy for Best School was presented to the Buxton Youth Developers for their enthusiastic participation. The team was elated since for their first competitive participation in mini-tennis, a player was able to make it to the final.
The Red Ball competition was the first tennis event held at that venue since GLTA Executives engaged its Manager, Charles Greaves, about starting a tennis programme there. Greaves, being a sports enthusiast, welcomed the initiative to start grassroots tennis programmes for juniors and adults until the organisation can upgrade the tennis court to the standard size for full court tennis.
At the closing ceremony, Chair of Junior Mini Tennis, Grace McCalman, expressed thanks to National Coordinator, Shelly Daly-Ramdyhan, for a well executed competition and to the parents for braving the inclement weather to get their children involved in starter tennis competition. She reiterated that the GLTA intends to expand its grassroots programme to increase participation, but much support is needed to make this venture a reality.
Robin Phillips, who is the Sports Director of the Buxton Youth Developers (BYD), also came in for high praises for travelling the distance to participate in the first tennis competition for the group. He also conveyed his interest in developing tennis at the Vigilance Community Centre for the young BYD team.
GLTA’s President, Jamal Goodluck, congratulated the players and thanked Greaves for sharing the vision of the GLTA to expand tennis and for his commitment to partnering with the GLTA in developing tennis at his facility.
