Wiltshire sisters dominate squash championship in Jamaica

By Ravin Singh

The Wiltshire sisters, who are no strangers to the sporting industry, dominated the BCIC All Jamaica Senior Squash Championships, which was held at Liguanea Club in Kingston over the weekend.

The Guyanese pair, who are medical students at the University of the West Indies (UWI), finished first and second, with the older sister, Akeila, copping her first senior title.

The younger Larissa advanced to the semi-finals of the competition after a walk-over in the quarter-finals. She then defeated Mia Mahfood 11-5, 11-5, 13-11, to advance to the finals.

There she met Akeila, who defeated Mia Todd 11-3, 11-3, 11-6 in the quarter-finals and Mia Lake 13-11, 11-4, 11-4 in the semis.

The sisters faced each other in three intense rounds, which ended 11-3, 11-6, 11-8 in favour of the older Wiltshire, who claimed her first senior title. The national squash player has won six junior titles in Guyana, and finished second three times at the senior level.

After the competition, an elated Akeila shared with the News Room: “For any competition, I go in there to do my best.”

She said that she saw her sister as another opponent and stuck to her plan.

“I didn’t think about playing my sister, I was playing an opponent. My strategy was to place my shots in target areas, move her around the court and force her to make the errors, which I thought I executed well,” the senior champion said.

For the younger Wiltshire, the results were satisfying. However, even though she is pleased with how she performed overall, she believes that she could have played better in the first game of the final.

“I had to maintain my focus and continue to play my best which allowed me to improve with each game. I am happy to have brought second place” she shared.

For the two, the next step involves identifying and working on their weaknesses to produce similar results in future competitions.