Juniors on the rise at second year of Harris Paints junior road tennis competition

A lot of talent was on display in long, hard-fought matches during the finals of the Harris Paints Electing a Champion Junior Road Tennis Competition, organized by the Barbados Road Tennis Association (BRTA), that served off on Monday 22 January. The premier Junior competition in the road tennis calendar, attracted 20% more entries over last year and more girls, who are usually under-represented across age categories.

The event was attended by Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, the Hon. Charles Griffith who was uplifted by what he saw and hopeful that this indigenous sport would grow far and wide in the future. He thanked Harris “ for investing in our young people and investing in sports. Government is unable to do everything as it relates to developing sports and where we can have corporate Barbados as being part of the process, I welcome that. So to Harris Paints I thank you…..I hope you will make it annual competition for our young people because what I saw tonight is clearly, clearly a case, that those diamonds in the rough will eventually emerge.”

The relationship between Harris Paints and road tennis really grew out of the company’s 50th celebrations in 2022 which led to a colourful partnership with BRTA to provide 50 new or refreshed road tennis courts across communities to help promote the sport and in the following January, Harris took up the title sponsorship of this junior event.

This first round of this year’s tournament started Saturday 6 January 2024 and the BRTA unusually utilized courts across Barbados to provide greater accessibility to audiences in various parishes. Play progressed on courts in Bush Hall, St Michael; Belfield, Black Rock; Maynards, St Peter; Dover, Christ Church and the Harris Paints court in Wildey.

The finals event at the Harris Paints tournament court, attracted a crowd of 150-200 strong who were enthralled and stuck it out through intermittent delays due to light showers with close of play ending around 8.30pm.

Harris Paints sincerely thanked the Barbados Road Tennis Association for their partnership, hard work and diligence in running a top-notch tournament. They also thanked other sponsors who contributed to this event: COB Coorperative Credit Union and Williams Equipment Limited. Above all they expressed gratitude to all the players for their participation, the tournament officials, commentators and members of the media who added a lot of excitement and energy and especially to the supporters, including the Harris Paints staff for their passion throughout.

Most of all, it’s time to celebrate the crowned champions for 2024:

Congratulations to all.