Canada Stuns #5 Malaysia To Finish 5th at World Juniors by Danny Da Costa Wroclaw, Poland July 27, 2013
– Canada capped of a stunning 5th place finish at the Women’s World
Junior Team Squash Championships with a 2-0 victory over World #5,
Malaysia. The Canadian team entered the competition as the 7th
seeds, faced the Malaysian’s after defeating World #6 India on Friday,
2-1. Canada finished with an overall 4-2 record at the
Championships, only losing to the top 2 nations, United States of
America and World Champions Egypt.
In today’s 5-6th place
final, Canada’s #3 player, 15 year old Chloe Chemtob, capped of a great
two weeks in Poland by defeating her Malaysian opponent Sivasangari
Subramaniam 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-3). Chemtob won the “Plate Division” at
the World Individuals a week earlier was in great form all week,
compiling a 3-2 record in match play.
Hollie Naughton,
competing in her final junior career match for Canada sealed the win
with a 3-1 victory over Malaysian #1 Vanessa Raj 11-7, 11-8, 5-11,
11-6. Ranked #84 in the world on the Women’s Squash Association
(WSA) World Rankings, Naughton was unsure if she would play in the
Championships after suffering an ankle injury that required treatment
in the hospital during the first day of training in Poland. The feisty
Canadian captain led the Canadian team both on and off the court
throughout the championships and is looking forward to her career
representing Canada at the senior level beginning September 1 – 8, 2013
at the Pan American Championships in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
This years Canadian
Team was comprised of: 18 year old, Hollie Naughton of Oakville,
ON; Alyssa Mehta, 17, from Toronto, ON; and two 15 years olds, Chloe
Chemtob of Montreal, QC and Sophie Mehta of Toronto, ON. Richard
Yendell of Newmarket, ON captained the Canadian team at this year’s
championships. Yendell is the Head Squash Professional at Mayfair
Clubs, Parkway location in Markham, ON.
Squash Canada
Executive Director, Danny Da Costa commented “we are thrilled to have
finished 5th in the world. Our ladies performed exceptionally
well this week and to beat two of the leading squash nations in the
world in India and Malaysia back-to-back is very special and this weeks
result bodes very well for the future of Canadian
squash”.
The 5th place finish
is Canada’s second best result for a Junior Women’s Team at the World
Championships. The 1987 team finished in 4th place. Canada
has finished in 5th place on 4 previous occasions in 2009, 1997, 1989
and 1985.
Egypt won the World
Team Championships for the 4th consecutive time defeating the United
States of America 2-0 in the final. The Egyptians have won the
World Junior Women’s title 6 of 8 past championships and have dominated
the sport of squash for the past decade. Hong Kong finished in 3rd
place upsetting World #3 England in the 3-4 final.
For full results on this year’s World Jr. Team Championships visit
About the World Squash Junior Championships The World Squash
Junior Championships is an annual squash championship that is contested
by the top under-19 squash players in the world. Competitions are
conducted in three categories: girls, boys and teams. The team
competition alternates every year between girls and boys with 2013
featuring the girls’ team event. The 2013 team competition
features squads from 16 countries grouped into four pools of four. For
each fixture, competing countries select three team members to compete
in a best of three singles format against the opposition. The top two
teams from each pool advance to the quarterfinals where a standard
playoff elimination format is used.
