Guyanese Wiltshire wins 2018 Steamer Gold tournament

Guyana’s Junior and Caribbean Under- 15 champion Shomari Wiltshire, who is currently sponsored by Dunlop and is a Banks DIH Rainforest Waters Brand Ambassador, is currently in the USA to attend a Summer Squash Camp, which is to be held from August 20-24 at the Chatham Club in New Jersey and organised by Sunil Seth, current Guyana national player.

Shomari is also undergoing personalised training under the tutelage of Sunil prior to participating in the squash camp.

Over the last week-end Shomari entered the 2018 Newport Steamer Summer Gold Tournament. The tournament was held in Providence, Rhode Island, at two venues- the St George’s School and the Portsmouth Abbey School.

This was a Gold tournament, and in the USA, Gold tournaments are ranked second behind the Junior Championships (JCT), and, according to the tournament information, with 280 registered players made it one of the largest non JCT events in the country in 2018.

Because Shomari had won the Finger Lakes Gold tournament in September 2017 and also due to the accumulated points gained at the US Junior Squash Open in December 2017 he was seeded number one in the Boys Under-15 draw.

In the first round, he defeated Omar Cochinwala 11-2, 11-4, 11-5 and in the second round, he defeated Isaac Mitchell 11-5, 11-1, 11-4 to reach the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals, he faced Ashton Monteiro, who had finished runner-up in the Washinton DC Gold held earlier in the summer. Shomari lost the first game 7-11, but bounced back to win the next three games 11-2, 11-6, 11-7.

In the semi-finals, he came up against Hollis Robertson, who had won two Under-15 Summer Gold tournaments, the Washinton DC Junior Gold and the 2018 Virginia Summer Gold, and was seeded ¾ in the tournament.

This would prove to be Shomari’s toughest match in the tournament. He lost the first game 7-11, but rebounded to win the next two games 11-5, 11-6 and at 9-9 in the fourth game, Shomari was two points away from reaching his second Gold Under-15 final but he made an unforced error and ended up losing the fourth game 9-11. In the fifth game, Shomari trailed 1-5, but kept a cool head and staged a comeback to eventually win the fifth game 11-8.

In the final, Shomari was pitted against the number two seed, Robert Avram, but this game would prove to be an anti-climax after the semi-final match-up the previous evening. Shomari easily won in straight games 11-6, 11-5, 11-2 to cop his second US Gold tournament.

Shomari would like to express gratitude to his sponsors Dunlop and Rainforest Waters, Coaches Carl Ince and Nyron Joseph, Kezqweyah Yisrael and the Top End team and also to Kathleen Paul, massage therapist, as without their contributions his success would not have been possible.