Winning start for Guyana in CAREBACO Team event

Guyana defeated Barbados and Aruba to top Group B of the team events at the Caribbean Badminton Championships (CAREBACO) at the Centro Deportivo Sports Hall in Aruba. This follows some impressive performance by the Guyanese in the individual segment of the tournament.

The Guyana team of Narayan Ramdhani, Priyanna Ramdhani, Jonathon Mangra and Ambika Ramraj defeated Barbados 3-2 and made a clean sweep of the five games against host Aruba.

Against Barbados, Jonathon Mangra defeated Shae Martin 21-13, 15-21, 21-19 in the Boys Singles; Narayan Ramdhani and Jonathon Mangra teamed up to defeat Jehu Gaskin and Keshem Moore 21-15, 21-10 in the Boys Doubles; and Priyanna Ramdhani and Ambika Ramraj won their Girls Doubles game.

Ramraj had lost in the Girls Singles to Amanda Haywood, while the Ramdhani siblings lost 16-21, 16-21 to Shae Martin and Amanda Haywood in the Mixed Doubles.

The Guyanese were more dominant in the clash against Aruba, winning all their games in a peerless display. The fact that they won in straight sets was a clear indication of the stranglehold they had on the opposition.

Narayan Ramdhani defeated Efraim Van Der Linden 21-7, 21-4 in the Boys Singles; Priyanna Ramdhani got the better of Thyrza Van Der Linden 21-10, 21-10 in the Girls Singles; Narayan Ramdhani and Jonathon Mangra prevailed 21-3, 21-5 against Tim Hankara and Efraim Van Der Linden in the Boys Doubles; Priyanna Ramdhani and Ambika Ramraj defeated Leyenne Schairer and Thyrza Van Der Linden 21-8, 21-15 in the Girls Doubles; and Jonathon Mangra and Ambika Ramraj defeated Jai Lalwani and Leyenne Schairer 21-4, 21-6 in the Mixed  Doubles.

As the champion team in Group B, Guyana will play Suriname this evening in the knockout round. Suriname emerged as the second best team in Group A. Meanwhile, in the individual segment, which concluded at the weekend, Guyana copped six medals- four silver and two bronze.

Photo caption: (From left) Narayan Ramdhani, Priyanna Ramdhani, Ambika Ramraj and Jonathon Mangra