Blackwood, Viera, Bryan top Guardian Life All Girls Champs

Saturday, November 21, 2009 10:20 AM

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BY PAUL BURROWES

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Shantal Blackwood, Megan Viera, and Nicholene Bryan worked their way to the top of the third staging of the two-day Guardian Life All Girls Junior Tennis Championships which ended Sunday at the Liguanea Club.

Blackwood overpowered Sicquena Sinclair 7-6, 6-3 for the Advanced title, while Megan Viera eclipsed tennis stunner and potential Miss Jamaica Teenage Maria Mair 6-3, 6-4 for the Intermediate trophy.

GUARDIAN TENNIS ALL-GIRL CHAMPS: Winners and Runners-up pose with the trophies on Sunday in the Guardian Life All-Girls Tennis Championships at the Liguanea Club in New Kingston. From left are Megan Viera, Maria Mair, Nicholene Bryan, Guardian Life Advisor Claudette Jackson-Rickards, Mishika Hoo-Kim, Shantal Blackwood, and partially hidden Sicquena Sinclair. (Photo: Paul Burrowes)

For the Beginner's title, St Andrew High's 16-year-old Bryan, in her first year of playing the sport but with a natural built of a sprinter, upstaged Mishika Hoo-Kim 6-3, 7-6.

Guardian Life Advisor Claudette Jackson-Rickards, present to hand out the trophies, expressed her company's commitment to the development of girls' tennis and preparation for the future.

Meanwhile, national technical co-ordinator Douglas Burke reiterated that the opportunities for girls to get tennis scholarships in the United States "are large".

"Every division one university in the US has eight full scholarships for girls, and only four and half for boys," he explained.

He noted that under NCAA rules, universities were instructed "to allocate more funds to female athletics and as a result there is an increase in the amount of scholarship money available for girls", Burke added.