Ja’s juniors produce valiant effort at 2023 CASA Champs
Published:Saturday | July 22, 2023 | 12:08 AMOrane Buchanan/Staff Reporter
PRESIDENT of the Jamaica Squash Association, Karen Anderson, has heaped praise on the 16-member team that represented the island at the National Lotteries Authority Junior Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Championships which was hosted in St Vincent and the Grenadines. Anderson believes the performances from the highly talented group showed that their hard work is now bearing fruit.
“It’s been very good as we’re proud of the kids and how they’ve performed. I think the girls have really stepped to the fore in the tournament, they’ve worked hard and have got the results from the all the hard work that they’ve put it, while the boys are doing their thing to hold up and follow the ladies,” said Anderson.
One of Jamaica’s leading performers was Sanjana Nallapati who secured a silver medal in the girls’ under-17 category. Nallapati stated that she was pleased with her overall performance despite coming out second-best to Barbados’ Eboni Atherley who defeated her 11-7, 11-4, 11-4.
“I was very happy to have made it to the finals as I’ve been putting in a lot of effort. I’m also pleased with my overall performance, but I was a little tired going into the final, as the semifinal was on the same morning. I’m not disappointed at all as Eboni played extremely well,” Nallapati remarked.
Jamaica, which entered the tournament with the likes of Nallapati and Mehar Trehan in their team, won a total of six medals inclusive of four silver and two bronze. According to President Anderson, the association is now looking to secure the signature of a permanent head coach as national representatives Tahjia Lumley and reigning national champion Julian Morrison were used as stand-in coaches for the championships.
“We’ve worked really hard, we’ve been having training sessions every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday along with tournaments leading up to it so all of that hard work has paid off. One of the things it has shown is that we need a head coach or technical director and that is glaringly lacking right now. If we can get that person involved, then we can see that the sport can really grow to the next level,” she stated.
Anderson added that a head coach could change the fortunes of the team.
“Without it (a head coach), we’re doing OK, not great. I think if we can find that head coach, with our athleticism here in the country along with more exposure to the sport, I think we’ll see more from us. Barbados went through a tough stretch where they couldn’t send full teams to junior CASA and now, they’re dominating in the Caribbean. So if we can get that head coach and the funding that could make a huge difference in turning bronze in silver and silver into gold medals,” Anderson said.