Binnie tipped to retain title

Kingston:

Reigning champion, Jamaican Chris Binnie, is strongly favoured to retain his title at the 18th annual Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Senior Championships, which begun yesterday and will run through to Saturday, in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Fresh from his bronze-medal win at the recent Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Bogota, Colombia, Binnie heads into the 2010 CASA Championships as the top men's seed.

The defending champion, along with compatriots Bruce Burrowes, Dane Schwier, Joey Levy and Warren Burrowes, left the island on Saturday.

Strong competition

While favoured to win, Binnie is expected to get strong competition from Richard Chin of Guyana and Colin Ramasra of Trinidad and Tobago, who are seeded two and three, respectively.

Fourth seed, Shawn Simpson of Barbados, fifth seed, Cameron Stafford of the Cayman Islands and Jamaican Bruce Borrowes, are also considered medal contenders.

"Chris is going into the tournament as the favourite, but we anticipate that Chin, Ramasra and a few others are going to be strong contenders for the title," said Gill Binnie, manager of Jamaica's team.

"Bruce Burrowes is also expected to perform well and other players like Patrick Foster and Nick Kyne from Bermuda should also be in good form, so I think it should be a very competitive championship and a lot will depend on the draw," she added.

In the team competition, which will run from Wednesday through to Saturday, the Jamaican contingent is expected to be in medal contention. Tipped for a top-three finish, the team is hoping to improve significantly on last year's showing.

"We didn't do very well last year, but we're going in with a stronger team this time and we anticipate that we could finish in the top three," said Gill Binnie.