Delilah Pease and Ethan Mohamed both collected silver medals at the Junior Caribbean Squash Championships in St. Vincent, the first silver medals for the BVI from the competition in approximately 14 years.
Competing in the finals on Monday, 8-year-old Pease fell to the number-one seed Gia Ghuran of Trinidad and Tobago 11-5, 11-7, 11-5 in the Girls Under 11 category.
National Coach Adam Murrills gave an account of what took place in the final.
“Both girls have fantastic serves and apply huge pressure especially when serving from the forehand side. Gia immediately found her rhythm making things exceedingly difficult for Delilah. She opened up a lead and managed to maintain it throughout the first game to take it 11-5. Delilah coped slightly better with Gia’s serve in the 2nd game and played some fantastic volley returns,” Murrills stated.
He added, “She was closer but Gia still managed to take the game 11-7. Delilah gave her absolute all every point, chased everything down, hitting some great winners of her own… but ultimately Gia was slightly too good on the day and prevailed 3-0. An incredible debut performance representing the BVI from Delilah.”
Meanwhile, in the Under 13 Boys, Mohamed fell to number one seed Ben Shepherd of Barbados in his final, 11-1, 11-5, 11-3.
Coach Murrills said Mohamed showed promise and he played high-quality squash.
“Ethan’s game plan was to try and be solid around the middle and get the ball past Ben before then looking to use his own skills to take the ball in short. Ethan managed in patches to play some high-quality squash… but he couldn’t quite match Ben’s consistency. Ben was able to keep a cushion in all 3 games and ran out a 3-0 winner,” Murrills stated.
“Something for Ethan to take away from the match is that he needs to remain positive at all times. He’s a great young player and he needs to fully believe that when he’s on the court and not be disheartened if things aren’t quite going his way. I fully believe he has the potential to overturn this result down the road,” Coach Murrills further stated.
Attention will now turn to the doubles events.
In the Boys’ Doubles, Oliver Henderson and Danny Henderson will face a pair from Barbados while in the Mixed Doubles, Darci Reich and Zevieh Abraham will also face two individuals from Barbados.