Pollard seeking third title
By Michael DaSilva
Stabroek News
June 28, 2002
Defending men’s squash champion Regan Pollard will be seeking his third national title when play in the Guyana Squash Association’s, 2002 National Squash Champion-ships continues at the Georgetown Club over the weekend.
On the ladies side, a new champion will definitely be crowned this year, since defending champion Nicolette Fernandes is currently undergoing specialised training in England.
Pollard who is seeded number one takes on a far weaker field than the one he triumphed over last year. His main opposition will come from the resurgent Shawn Badrinauth who recently placed a surprising fourth in the St. Lucia Open and Canadian based Julian Chin who are the number’s two and three seeds respectively.
Denise Jeffrey is the overwhelming favourite to take her first national title with her sister Kathy Shuffler and the young brigade of Kristina and Andrea King being the only main opposition.
According to Nicolette’s brother Robert Fernandes, his sister arrived in England safely and started her preparation for the Commonwealth Games with Neil Harvey, coach of the world’s number one men’s player Peter Nicol.
Robert however disclosed that both Harvey and Nicolette are currently in the US where Harvey conducts a training camp around this time every year, for that country’s (USA) top junior players.
Robert said he was informed by Nicolette that training with Harvey is far different than training in Guyana. "In Guyana a player is all by his or herself during training sessions, but in England and the US, there are more than one persons doing the same thing at the same time, so you have someone to train with and talk to" Robert explained.
Nicolette will continue training with Harvey until the Commonwealth Games billed for Manchester, England, gets underway.
She will be joined for the Commonwealth Games by Pollard, Canadian based Luke Fraser and possibly Badrinauth. The manager is Garfield Wiltshire.
Meanwhile, in results from matches played on Wednesday, Amanda Rodrigues defeated Daina King 9-3, 9-1, 9-7, Chantelle Fernandes beat Nicketa Campbell 9-0, 9-1, 9-1, Andrea King brushed aside Chelsea Fung 9-0, 9-0, 9-0, Kimberly Jeffrey made light work of Maria Atkinson 9-0, 9-1, 9-1, Robert McDavid defeated Ingram Edwards 9-1, 9-2, 9-0, Stanley Marcus Jr. beat Raj Sankar 9-2, 9-6, 9-1, Andrew King defeated James Mentore 9-0, 9-3, 9-0, Medharishi Ramdhani beat Raphael DeGroot 9-0, 9-0, 9-1, Tuhran Mohabir defeated Kristian Jeffery 9-4, 1-9, 9-2, 9-2 and Peter DeGroot got past Waine Narain 9-5, 9-5, 9-4.