T&T’s Gia Ghu­ran was at her ab­solute best as she cap­tured the bronze medal in the girls’ un­der-13 di­vi­sion of the re­cent­ly con­clud­ed II Pan Amer­i­can Open Squash Cham­pi­onship, Guatemala 2025.

The com­pe­ti­tion took place from Au­gust 28 to 31, and Ghu­ran, who claimed the ti­tles in both the girls’ un­der-13 and 15 di­vi­sions at the Sun­shine Snacks Ju­nior Na­tion­al Tour­na­ment ear­li­er this year, proved to be a cut above the rest at the tour­na­ment.

Con­tact­ed for a com­ment yes­ter­day, Ghu­ran said, “I have been train­ing hard for this tour­na­ment. The stan­dard of the Pan Amer­i­can Open was very high, and the games were chal­leng­ing. To be able to stand on the podi­um and rep­re­sent my coun­try is al­ways an in­cred­i­ble feel­ing. I am grate­ful to God, my coach­es, my fam­i­ly, and every­one who sup­port­ed me. I al­so start­ed learn­ing Span­ish in prepa­ra­tion for this tour­na­ment. Next on the agen­da will be the up­com­ing Cana­di­an Ju­nior Open, in De­cem­ber in Ni­a­gara, On­tario.”

Ghu­ran, who has flown the red, white, and black flag of T&T with much pride in the past, en­dured sev­en rounds of in­tense ac­tion against some of the best play­ers in the re­gion and the world be­fore her crown­ing mo­ment.

In her open­ing two match­es, Ghu­ran de­stroyed Varenya Singh of Ja­maica in straight sets 11-4, 11-2, and 11-8, and Tehani Munroe of Guyana 11-3, 11-9, and 11-8 for a start that boost­ed her con­fi­dence ear­ly. How­ev­er, fac­ing home­town favourite Al­li­son Ru­bio in round 6, the lit­tle T&T play­er slumped to a 3-2 de­feat de­spite tak­ing the ear­ly ad­van­tage af­ter two sets.

Ghu­ran forged ahead 14-12 for a 1-0 lead and was com­fort­ably out front af­ter two sets, 2-0, with an 11-2 tri­umph over Ru­bio. But for­tune didn’t fol­low her in the oth­er sets, as she went down to the im­prov­ing Guatemalan 6-11, 4-11, and 9-11 for her first loss of the tour­na­ment.

Lat­er, Ghu­ran, who cap­tured the sil­ver medal at the Ju­nior Caribbean Squash Cham­pi­onships in the Cay­man Is­lands ear­li­er this sum­mer, re­bound­ed with a three-set vic­to­ry over Lia Samai Rob­lero Tlax­coa­pan of Mex­i­co, 11-5, 11-7, and 11-7, as well as a flaw­less tri­umph over Jes­si­ca Anaya, 11-0, 11-0, 11-0. Still, it proved to be in­suf­fi­cient as Ghu­ran went down to loss­es to top seed Delilah Grace Pease 11-4, 11-4, and 11-7, Sofia Romero 11-3, 11-9, 7-11, 4-11, and 12-10.

Al­so tak­ing part in the com­pe­ti­tion were Evan Ghu­ran, the na­tion­al un­der-11 cham­pi­on, and Co­en Mack, the na­tion­al un­der-15 cham­pi­on. The tour­na­ment brought to­geth­er the best ju­nior squash play­ers from 17 coun­tries and served as a great learn­ing ex­pe­ri­ence for all who par­tic­i­pat­ed.

Next on the in­ter­na­tion­al tour­na­ments for the lo­cal ju­niors would be the Cana­di­an Ju­nior Open that takes place this De­cem­ber in Ni­a­gara, On­tario.