By BVI Squash Rackets Association
The VI National Squash Team at the 2018 Pan American Squash Championships, August 26 – September 1. Photo: PanAm Squash
Friday 24th August saw the Virgin Islands National Men’s Squash Team head to the Cayman Islands to compete in the Pan American Squash Championships. The team consisted of four members : Joe Chapman, Mike Adamson, Neville Sorrentino and Dion Anselm. The 4 team members were accompanied by Head Squash Coach, Adam Murrills.
First up was the individual event. With the majority of the players here being full time professional squash players, there were going to be some tough match ups.
Adamson, Sorrentino and Anselm all competed valiantly but fell to highly World Ranked players from Canada, Cayman Islands and Bermuda.
Chapman however reached the last 32 of the draw after convincingly winning his first match 3-0. He then faced no.1 seed and World No.11, Diego Elias. Chapman fought well but Elias’s extreme class proved too much for him. Elias then went on to win the gold medal with relative ease.
The doubles event followed with Chapman and Sorrentino representing the VI. They were pitted against Bermuda who had 2 players ranked inside the top 150 in the world as their doubles’ pair. It was a fast paced affair with lots of winners and attacking flair. With 2 current full time professionals they had the extra consistency and quality required to win the important points at the back end of the games. A close match finished 2-0 to Bermuda.
The climax of the week was the team event in which countries were competing to gain qualification for the huge multi sport event that is the Pan American Games to be held in Lima, Peru in 2019.
The team event was played in a 3 man team format. The team is ordered 1-3 who then play off against the opposing team’s matching number. The VI came up against Colombia, Bermuda, Paraguay and Guyana. While the VI did not produce a team win, Chapman managed to get 2 wins against the opposing no.1s from both Paraguay and Guyana. Despite the loss, the VI team players performed very well and showed great improvement after a short training camp in the run up to the event.
“The event as a whole was hugely enjoyable and a massive learning experience for all of us involved,” said Adam Murrills, Head Squash Coach, BVISRA. “Being exposed to some of the very best squash players in the world was a real eye opener and getting to not only watch but compete against them has definitely opened our players’ minds as to different styles of play and what is really possible on the court!”
