The Barbados junior squash team has just returned from the 3rd Pan American Junior Squash Championships (November 9 ? 14th ) in Santiago, Chile with two medals, one silver and one bronze, an amazing achievement by a team that entered this under-18 age group event unseeded.
First in the individual championships, the Barbados boy’s under -19 champion, Rhett Cumberbatch, reached the last sixteen before bowing out to Jose Pablo Mendez (Guatemala) 1-3, while in the girl’s draw the Caribbean under-15 champion, Barbadian Cheri-Ann Parris won the plate final, finishing 9th , while 15 year old Barbadian team mate, Bo Harris, lost in the quarter-finals to the eventual girl?s champion, Antonella Falcione (Argentina), who did not drop a single game in the tournament. The outstanding Barbadian player, however, was 17 year old Nadia McCarthy, who defeated the Pan American girl’s top seed, Vanessa Calderon (El Salvador) in three straight games in the first round and eventually progressed to the semi-finals, where she played the match of her life after falling 0-2 behind to the young Colombian, Christina Palaez, and recovered to 2-all before fading in the fifth game to lose: 6/9 3/9 9/4 9/1 4/9. Both losing semi-finalists, McCarthy and Ana Lucia Diaz ( Columbia ) were awarded bronze medals. This was a proud moment for Barbados as this was the first time an English speaking Caribbean country had entered these Pan American Junior Championships, and to snatch an individual medal at the first time of asking was a tremendous achievement.
But more glory for Barbados was to follow in the team events. The boy’s team of the Cumberbatch brothers, Rhett and Bryant, as well as Alex Garcia and Alex Jordan (reserve) played well and would have been very pleased with the eventual fifth place finish behind champions Colombia , Argentina (2nd ), Guatemala (3rd ) and El Salvador (4th ). Barbados defeated Venezuela (2-1), Peru (2-1) and Chile (3-0) along the way and finished just outside the medal round.
But the Barbados girl’s team did even better! Bo Harris, Nadia McCarthy, Cheri-Ann Parris and Maia Blackman (reserve), who formed the core of the team that won the Caribbean Junior girl’s team title in the Cayman Islands in July this year, played outstanding squash to defeat hosts Chile (3-0), Peru (3-0), and El Salvador (2-1). The only losses suffered by Barbados were to the eventual champions and top seeds, Columbia , who defeated Barbados in an early pool match 2-1 and then again in the girl’s final (3-0). At the end of these championships the Barbados girl’s team was awarded a silver medal, with Columbia picking up the gold and El Salvador and Argentina both being awarded bronze medals.
The Barbados team officials, Monty Cumberbatch (manager) and Richard Walcott (coach) were delighted with the final standings. Next year’s Pan American Junior Championships will be held in Ecuador and the Barbados Squash Rackets Association will be working hard to prepare a junior team to attend this event.
Craig Archer
BSRA President
2004-11-17
