All the athletes have a moment with sponsors and GSA officials at the opening ceremony.
By Treiston Joseph
The 25th edition of the Caribbean Junior Squash Championships was officially declared open on Wednesday afternoon (July 05, 2017) by Director of Sport Christopher Jones at the Georgetown Club on Camp Street.
After a full march pass by the teams attending the tournament as well as the national anthem of the six participating Caribbean nations, Director of Sport Christopher Jones in his brief remarks declared the championship open while mentioning the power of sport.
“Government is dedicated to the development of sport because we understand the power of sport and evidence is right here at this head table where you have two beverage giants supporting this tournament because of sport… so with that I will declare this tournament open,” Jones highlighted.
However, earlier, Minister of Public Telecommunication Catherine Hughes applauded the athletes for their intensity while touching on the Caribbean culture.
“I’m amazed by the intensity of these athletes but also by the professionalism that you bring to the sport of squash… so in essence what I’m saying is that our culture allows us to tone down rivalries and play for glory and of course bragging right and that in itself because we are all from the Caribbean shows that our similarities far outweigh our difference,” Hughes noted.
Title and long time sponsor Digicel being represented by Gregory Dean wish the athletes well noting that Digicel was proud to be n board with the Guyana Squash Association.
“I’d like to commend the Guyana Squash Association for putting on this event and Digicel is proud to be associated with a sport that has brought so much success to Guyana… I would like to congratulate all the winners so far and Digicel is one again proud to be associated with winners,” Dean shared.
Sponsors, ExxonMobil represented by Rod Henson, Banks DIH by Troy Peters and Ansa McAL by Sean Abel all had their say about being a part of the tournament and supporting the development of the young athletes that will be the future of the sport.
Meanwhile with the girls easily defeating the Cayman Islands girls earlier in the day to start the teams’ title defence, the male Guyanese squad followed in their footsteps with a 4-1 win over Bermuda to en Wednesday’s play. The males on Thursday morning also topped Trinidad easily with a 5-nil win.
The tournament will continue for the remainder of the week with the teams’ finals being held on July 8.
