Expectations are high that Jamaica’s four-member male squash team will secure qualification to the Pan American (PanAm) Games in Chile later this year, when they engage the PanAm Qualifiers in Cartagena, Colombia.

The team of reigning national champion Julian Morrison, Tahjia Lumley, Bruce Burrowes and Dane Schwier, is set to depart the island on Friday, for what is expected to be a highly competitive qualification tournament.

However, Morrison said the small team was ready to put their best foot forward.

“You can expect that we will be giving a hundred percent. We have put in a lot of work for the last two months to really prep ourselves for this.

“Initially we thought it would be an elevated court but finding out that it is very flat, so we are not necessarily at a disadvantage due to the altitude. It is hot over there, but we are coming from Jamaica, especially in this summer, we will be able to weather that storm,” Morrison said.

Burrowes concurred.

“We are going up against very, very big countries like America, Peru, these really big juggernauts of the western hemisphere. But we really think that we can take them on because ‘we little but we tallawah," Burrowes declared. 

First-timer Lumley also believes the team is mentally and physically prepared to give a good account of themselves.

“We have been doing a lot of doubles training together. We have also started training as a team on the physical side in the gym with our trainer, so we have been doing a lot of team bonding which is really good for us, something new but it’s also something that we hope to continue in the future,” said Lumley.

“A lot of work has been done on the mental side as well. Hopefully we can all put it together on each day that we go out there with our flag on our back and make sure that we make Jamaica proud,” he added. 

Meanwhile, Karen Anderson, president of the Jamaica Squash Association, is hopeful that the team will do well.

"It is going to be a very tough competition. Its fourteen teams vying for six spots and the main competitors, or the strongest contenders are from Mexico, USA, Canada, Colombia and Argentina,” Anderson said.

“Colombia, however, has already qualified along with Chile. But it is going to be extremely hard, but we feel that we have a chance, and the reality is, if you don't go, you don't get a chance to actually compete to qualify, so we made the decision to send our team and we are looking forward to seeing how they manage,” she noted.

Coach Rene Denis will meet up with the team in Colombia. 

Team Jamaica will leave the island on Sunday (May 7) to defend their West Indies Full Bore Shooting Championship in Antigua & Barbuda between May 8-14 at the Crabb's Range.

The team to be led by Captain Phillip Scott will include the current national Full-Bore champion Nicola Guy, Jamaica’s first female national champion. Also on the team is two-time Amazon trophy winner and O Class champion Karen Anderson.

 Major John Nelson, the president of the West Indies Full Bore Shooting Council and five-time Wogarth Cup winner, reigning Wogarth Cup winner, Captain Dwayne Ford, Canute CC Coley, Dennis Lee and Dr. Derek Mitchell complete the line-up.

George Hutton will serve as team manager.

Full Bore competition features competitors shooting from a prone position from distances of 300, 500,  600, 900 and 1,000 yards. Notably only Barbados, Guyana and Jamaica have 900-yard and 1,000-yard courses.

Shooters compete in three possible classes. X Class comprise the top 15-20 shooters in the Caribbean. T Class is any shooter participating in a regional shoot for the first time. Everyone else is in O Class.

Jamaica is considered to be a power house in Full Bore Shooting having won several championships and is always on the podium.

The Amazon trophy is awarded to the highest-scoring female while Wogarth Cup is awarded to the shooter who has the highest score in the team match.

AGI (Advantage General Insurance) defeated Almost Capable 2-1 in the final of the KPMG Squash League recently at the Liguanea Club in Kingston to be crowned league champion.

AGI’s Julian Morrison defeated Almost Capable's top player Adam Lee 3-1 (10-21, 21-18, 21-20, 21-20) to give his team an early lead. Tahjia Lumley secured the title when he beat Alan Roper 3-0 (21-18, 21-15, 21-18) in their best of five match-up.

With the title already lost, Daniel Chung clawed back some pride when he beat Stephan Morrison 2 -1 (21-18, 15-21, 21-18).

"Firstly the entire KPMG League was a successful league. I think it was a very good opportunity for everybody who’s playing to be able test their skills at deficit - playing better players,” said Morrison the AGI captain afterwards.

"I love it. I think it was great. I think that everybody played well throughout the entire thing because everybody has gotten through with three-game win.”

 Cereal Killers, who lost to AGI in the semi-final, was third while Big Shot was the plate winner that was decided between the top two losing teams. AGI's Dave Morrison was named the Most Valuable Player.

President of the Jamaica Squash Association, Karen Anderson was pleased with how the tournament played out.

 "It was fantastic. It brings out everything, the competitiveness, the sportsmanship, the cheering for the underdog, the underdog trying to bring down the big gun,” she said.

“The uniqueness of the event (the handicap system of play) is what makes it and what captures people's enjoyment with it and so we are very excited about the tournament."

Anderson said that the league was very important for the game locally, especially for the juniors who get to play against various types of players at different skill levels as they prepare for the upcoming Caribbean Championships.

According to Rajan Trehan, country managing partner of title sponsor KPMG, "We are thrilled with how the tournament went. I think the format of the game is so interesting. This along with the junior trials and the senior trials within the time period of this tournament, has really given the juniors a lot of practice and given them a basis to step up their game. I think the timing is just perfect for this tournament."

Nicola Guy prevailed in a fiercely fought battle to claim her first national full bore/target rifle shooting title at the recently concluded Jamaica Rifle Association National Championship which was contested at the Jamaica Defence Force Twickenham Park Range, in St Catherine, Jamaica.

 On the opening day, Guy earned 145.10 points to finish a breath behind 2019 champion, Denis Lee at 145.11 and ahead of two-time defending champion, Captain Dwayne Ford who had 143.6.

  On day two the in-form lady marksman, threw down the gauntlet by shooting 49.5 out of 50 points in the first event which was 10 shots at 500 yards.

 Although Major John Nelson was able to replicate that score in the first event, Guy cemented her opener with 47.4 out of 50 at 600 yards in the second event, a score only bested by Karen Anderson who shot 48.3.

 However, Guy’s consistency paid off when at 900 yards she shot 61.3 out of 75 points which kept her ahead with an overall tally of 302.22, which enabled her to claim the title.

 Anderson shot 65.4 to amass 299.21 points and take second place overall.

 Claude Russell shot 68.3 to win the 900-yard bank and finish with 298.18 which earned him the third spot on podium.

 Ford was fourth with 298.11, Nelson placed fifth with 297.15, while Lee finished sixth with 296.22, in seventh place was Dr. Derek Mitchell – O Class Champion with 236.5 and eighth was Phillip Scott with 233.8 points to round out the top eight.

Outstanding shooting from their eight-man Long Range Team team helped Guyana land the Milex Cup at the 2022 West Indies Full Bore Championships currently underway at Twickenham Park in Jamaica on Friday.

The shooters from South America aiming at targets at 900 yards were the only team to score over 700 out of a possible 800, with a total of 715.35 to take the title over Canada (682.32), Antigua & Barbuda (655.22). Hosts Jamaica finished fourth with a combined score of 652.16.

Four of their shooters score higher than 90 points during the competition - Sherwin Felicien shot 93.3, Roberto Tewari, 92.7, Peter Persaud, 91.5 and Dylan Fields 90.6 – as Guyana dominated the competition.

However, the best shooter on the day was Antigua & Barbuda’s Anderson Perry who scored 49.1 on the first detail and 48.2 on the second for a combined score of 97.3 out of a possible 100. His teammate Christopher Joseph was also excellent with a score of 96.6.

Karen Anderson was Jamaica’s top shooter with her score of 88.3.

Guyana will go for the sweep on Saturday in the Short Range Match at 300/500/600 yards in which Lennox Brathwaite is defending champion in the Wogarth Cup.

Multiple-time winner Lennox Braithwaite of Guyana won the Grand Aggregate in the individual event at the 2022 West Indies Full Bore Shooting Championships on Thursday. The championship is being held at Twickenham Park in St. Catherine, Jamaica.

Brathwaite, who lamented the pandemic-induced relative lack of preparation coming into the tournament, won with a score of 467.39 out of a possible 480 points. He defeated Emmanuel Gauvin and Avtar Nanrey of Canada as well as compatriots Sherwin Felicien and Ransford Goodluck, who finished in the top five.

Guyana had five shooters in the top 10.

Jamaica’s national champion Dwayne Forde scored 449.30 to finished seventh while Karen Anderson was 17th.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Jordan-Cousins of Barbados scored 436.20 while out-dueling Anderson (435.25) to win the Amazon trophy which goes to the top female shooter. Women shoot against the males on the same targets and use same equipment in the competition.

The competition continued on Friday, October 28, with the team event which comprises a short-range and long range component.

The long-range team match, for the Milex Cup, began on Friday and will be followed by the short-range (300m/500m/600m) team match for the Wogarth Cup.

Braithwaite is the defending champion. The short range team match is Saturday, October 29.

Forty shooters from across the Caribbean are in Jamaica for the 2022 West Indies Full Bore Shooting Council Championships set to run from October 24 - 29 at the Twickenham Park range in St Catherine following a two-year hiatus because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The best shooters from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Canada, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago will be vying to claim the title held by Trinidad and Tobago when the tournament was last held in 2019. However, there will likely be a new champion as the twin-island republic has sent only one shooter to the tournament this year. Barbados, too, has sent a single shooter.

The six-country championship will feature shooters aiming at targets from a minimum of 300 to a maximum of a 1000 yards.

Guyanese Lennox Braithwaite, Wogarth Cup champion, is back to defend his title having had the highest score in the short-range team match last time out. However, he admitted to Sportsmax.TV that his confidence is not where it should be going into competition.

“As a sportsman we try our best to prepare ourselves but there were two years of not shooting and so the kind of preparation that we would have liked we have not been able to on the outdoors but on the indoors, we would have done some of the exercises that would keep the muscle memory,” he said, but in terms of reading the weather conditions and so on for two years we would have been off.

“I am not so confident because I would guess that all the other teams maybe going through similar or had a better position in preparing. In Guyana, we hadn’t had the use of the ranges until about a month ago, so we had some challenges there.”

Notwithstanding the challenges, Brathwaite said he plans to offer a stern defense of his title.

“I would want to defend that position but at the same time I have to realistic because there are people who want to win also.”

He pointed out the shooters from Antigua and the host country as those he has to be wary of. “Nobody wants to lose at home,” he said laughingly.

Indeed, Jamaica would not want to lose at home and as such have fielded a strong team led by Phillip Scott and that includes national champion Dwayne Forde, who has been deemed a ‘definite contender’ for the individual title.

The team also comprises Karen Anderson, Denis John Nelson, David Rickman, Denis Lee, Claude Russell, Nicola Guy, Jose Nunez and Canute CC Coley.

As the global squash fraternity embarks on raising awareness for the sport, President of the Jamaica Squash Association Karen Anderson wants more women to be involved with the sport.

The 37th running of the Caribbean Senior Squash Championship will take place in Jamaica, August 21 - 27 at the Liguanea Club in Kingston.

Former national player Karen Anderson has been elected as president of the Jamaica Squash Association (JSA) at the Annual General Meeting on Thursday.

Anderson a 13-time national champion and former coach has prioritized strengthening the JSA’s governance structure, ensuring financial stability, and accelerating the growth of squash island-wide.

“My involvement in squash is multifaceted from playing to coaching to refereeing, managing teams, and marketing the game and I have the depth of experience and passion to expand the reach of squash within Jamaica while making our players more competitive in regional and international arenas,” Anderson said.

Other areas of focus will include developing a grassroots program that will encompass educational institutions and community-based outreach.  Development programs for coaches and referees will also be an area of emphasis.

The new administration also includes veteran player and IT specialist, Joey Levy as Vice President while financial expert, Deanne Pryce and seasoned administrator, Gill Binnie retained their positions as Treasurer and Secretary, respectively.

 The supporting Executive Committee includes an infusion of current national team players such as Bruce Burrowes, Julian Morrison, and Tahjia Lumley as well as Nathlee Boreland, Stephen Dear, businessman, and squash aficionado, Douglas Beckford.