Local squash players continue to showcase their talent overseas.
The Cayman Islands were represented by a handful of local talent at the Pan American Sports Festival in Mexico. The squash portion of the competition, which runs until Sept. 30, wrapped up earlier this month at Zinacantapec with Cayman finishing near the bottom of the rankings.
Among the most notable showings was Cameron Stafford making it to the third round of the men’s individual segment – beating Brazil’s Ronivaldo Durate 12-10, 13-11, 11-5 – before losing to Colombian Erick Herrera 6-11, 3-11, 13-15. The Mexico result is the latest positive for Stafford, who was second overall at last month’s 22nd Senior Caribbean Squash Championships in Barbados and is now ranked second in the region by the Caribbean Area Squash Association.
Stafford says the Pan American event, a qualifier for the 2015 Pan American Games in Canada, was about building up experience.
“It gives us more experience, more exposure to other countries and other different styles of playing the game as well,” Stafford said. “We’re just a small Caribbean nation – as well as Jamaica, Trinidad as well – so all of us Caribbean islands are trying to get the experience and trying to compete with the world’s best at the same time.”
On the men’s side, Daniel Murphy lost to Paraguay’s Nicolas Caballero, 3-11, 4-11, 0-11, in the individual segment while Julian Jervis lost to Ecuador’s Francisco Lalama, 7-11, 6-11, 5-11. For the ladies, Eilidh Bridgeman was eliminated in the first round by Guyana’s Ashley De Groot, 11-4, 4-11, 2-11, 9-11.
In the doubles segment, Jervis and Murphy lost to Antonio De La Torre and Josue Enriquez, 11-8, 11-1. In the mixed doubles competition, Marlene West teamed up with Stafford to beat Chileans Ana Pinto and Rodrigo Sauvalle, 7-11, 11-4, 11-4, before losing to Mexicans Diana Garcia and Alfredo Avila, 4-11, 8-11, in the quarterfinals.
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