Sh­er­nice Thomas

Reign­ing na­tion­al ju­nior triple crown cham­pi­on Leon Cassie is one of 15 play­ers who will be rep­re­sent­ing T&T at the Caribbean Re­gion­al Bad­minton Con­fed­er­a­tion (CARE­BA­CO) Tour­na­ment which serves off to­mor­row in San­to Domin­go. Four se­niors and eleven ju­niors will rep­re­sent T&T at the tour­na­ment in their re­spec­tive age di­vi­sions in the sin­gles, dou­bles and mixed dou­bles events. Cassie, who won the un­der-13 sin­gles, dou­bles and mixed dou­bles ti­tles at the Na­tion­al Cham­pi­ons, bril­liant­ly made his de­but in the CARE­BA­CO tour­ney last year by tak­ing the boys' un­der-11 sin­gles crown. How­ev­er, this year the Cen­tral Bad­minton Acad­e­my and Club (CBAC) will be mov­ing up to the un­der-13 cat­e­go­ry where he will hop­ing to add the sin­gles and mixed dou­bles ti­tles to his name. Al­so mak­ing his sec­ond ap­pear­ance at the re­gion­al tour­na­ment from CBAC is Na­tion­al boys' un­der-17 semi­fi­nal­ist Vikash Mara­jh.

Oth­er na­tion­al ju­nior cham­pi­ons on the lo­cal con­tin­gent in­clude: Anan­da Ram­s­ingh (un­der-13 mixed dou­bles), Brit­tney Mo­hammed (girls' un­der-17 dou­bles), Jerome Charles (boys' un­der-15 sin­gles), Ni­ral Ram­lal (boys' un­der-15 dou­bles), Aleem Ali (boys' un­der-15 dou­bles and mixed dou­bles), Matthaus Wil­ford (boys' un­der-19 sin­gles and dou­bles) and Ja­son Ram­jass (un­der-19 dou­bles). Lead­ing the charge for the se­niors are top men's and women's seeds Rahul Ram­per­sad and Solan­gel Guz­man re­spec­tive­ly. Ram­per­sad, the na­tion­al sin­gles cham­pi­on, will be en­ter­ing the men's sin­gles and mixed dou­bles with na­tion­al triple crown cham­pi­on, Guz­man, who will al­so en­ter the women's sin­gles. Join­ing the se­niors are na­tion­al women's dou­bles champ Vir­gina Char­iandy-Bal­want and Ka­masha Robert­son. The con­tin­gent left the coun­try yes­ter­day ac­com­pa­nied by T&T Bad­minton As­so­ci­a­tion (TT­BA) Pres­i­dent, Zeu­di Mack, who will act as team man­ag­er and Sab­ri­na Cassie, head na­tion­al ju­nior coach.

FULL TEAM

Ju­niors: Leon Cassie, Vikash Mara­jh, Naim Mo­hammed, Anan­da Ram­s­ingh, Tiffany Ram­per­sad, Brit­tney Mo­hammed, Jerome Charles, Ni­ral Ram­lal, Aleem Ali, Matthaus Wil­ford and Ja­son Ram­jass

Se­niors: Rahul Ram­per­sad, Solan­gel Guz­man, Ka­masha Robert­son and Vir­gina Char­iandy-Bal­want