Barbados edge Ja for title

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC:

BARBADOS USED two category wins and three second place finishes to edge Jamaica for overall team honours at the Caribbean Senior Squash Championship that ended Saturday night.

By winning the ladies and veterans team titles, backed up by runner-up finishes in the men's masters, the ladies veterans and men's veterans, the Barbadians collected 22 points to snatch a slender victory over defending champions Jamaica, who finished on 21.60 points at the Cascadia Courts in St Ann's.

Guyana finished third in the overall table on 17 points, followed by Trinidad and Tobago (13.80), the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (10.80) and the Cayman Islands (5.40).

The Jamaicans, who had won the ladies and veterans' titles at the last championship - 2003 in Barbados - to lift the overall crown, emerged as the men's champions over Guyana.

SOLID ALL-ROUND PERFORMANCE

They also placed second in the ladies category, but the solid all-round performance by the Barbadians propelled them to the title.

Barbados, third to Jamaica and Guyana in the men's team event, won the ladies team title over Jamaica and Guyana, and secured their veterans' team championship ahead of Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica.

Trinidad and Tobago captured the men's masters' title over Barbados, with Jamaica third, and the OECS copped the ladies veterans' crown over Barbados, with Trinidad and Tobago third.

The Cayman Islands won the men's veterans title ahead of Barbados, with Trinidad and Tobago third and Guyana fourth.

In the individual championship that ended early last week, top seed Nicolette Fernandes, of Guyana, had beaten Barbadian Karen Meakins 0-8, 9-6, 9-4 for the women's title, and Jamaican James Bullock, the number two seed, toppled the number one Shawn Badrinath, of Guyana 9-6, 6-9, 9-6, 9-7 for the men's crown.