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Pan Am games 2019 Squash women lose opening singles’ matches; National ruggers in action today
By Calvin Chapman in Peru
In their debut at the 18th Pan American Games being contested in Lima, Peru, the Guyanese Squash pair of National Champion Ashley Khalil and U.S based Mary Fung-A-Fat both lost their opening Women’s Singles matches 3-1, yesterday morning.
Rugby winger Patrick King (left) and Physio, Akeem Fraser
Ashley Khalil, Mary Fung-A-Fat, Taylor Fernandes
Mary Fung-A-Fat (Stroke) against Ana Pinto of Chile during her 3-1 loss yesterday at the 2019 Pan American Games.
Playing at the National Sports Center in Videna, Lima, Khalil was first up against Chilean number one seed Giselle Delgado at 09:00hrs while Fung-A-Fat was pitted against Chile’s Ana Pinto from 09:45hrs.
The score line for both of the ladies matches didn’t do the pair much justice but the young women performed creditably. Khalil lost to Delgado 8-11, 12-14, 11-7 and 2-11 in a match that could have gone either way.
Manager of the team, David Fernandes, shared the fair sentiment that if Khalil had won the second game, which was agonisingly close, Khalil would have taken the match. Fung-A-Fat games went 7-11, 4-11, 11-7 and 10-12.
Fernandes shared with this publication that Fung-A-Fat appeared a bit nervous in the first two games but found her groove in the third game and won. The fourth game was closely contested, Fung-A-Fat carried over her momentum from the third game and was cruising 7-5 to victory (to force a fifth game) but Ana Pinto exercised her experience and rallied back into the match to lead 7-10.
However, Fung-A-Fat dug deep and took the match game to duece before Pinto eventually won 12-14. Khalil, who will be teaming up with Taylor Fernandes for the Women’s doubles today, is happy with both herself and Fung-A-Fat’s performances noting that Guyana’s Squash is capable of reaching great heights.
“I think that compared with the level of training and exposure that we have in Guyana and based on results that we get against experienced players, our ladies are sure to break into the top 50 if we were to go pro,” Khalil shared.
David Fernandes who is also performing duties as Assistant Coach, expressed satisfaction with the girls’ performance, “I think Ashley and Taylor will do well tomorrow (today) in the doubles. It’s a best out three, so they will have to come out gunning. I think the girls were a bit nervous today (yesterday). It’s a big stage so there will be some butterflies; it was a spirited performance by both players so there should be no reason for disappointment.”
Meanwhile, in Rugby, the ‘Green Machine’ will be in 7s action today from 12:00hrs when they come against the United States of America (USA) before playing familiar foes, Trinidad & Tobago, tomorrow and scrum against Brasil later, tomorrow.
Winger, Patrick King said, “Presently it’s a bit cold but it’s not that bad. The guys have been coping with it so far.”
He further iterated that, “Even though this is a high level tournament, we want to make our fans proud again since we have registered a string of poor performances of recent.”
Team Physio, Akeem Fraser, refuted rumors that as many as five players travelled to the championships injured, “The team is doing well and in terms of injury nobody is suffering from anything severe that would prevent them from playing, everyone is ready to go.”
Guyana is competing in eight disciplines at the 2019 Pan American Games, Commonwealth Silver Medalist Keevin Allicock will jump into the boxing ring, tomorrow.
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