Canada Wins Three Medals, Begins Team Competition at Pan American Championships
by Whitney Fuller

September 11, 2014 OTTAWA (ON) – The Canadian Squash Team has won three medals so far at the Pan American Squash Championships, and are looking to add two more as they begin the Team competition. The Pan American Squash Championships are taking place in Toluca, Mexico as part of the Pan American Sports Festival leading up to the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto.

Seven Canadian athletes were in action in the individual draws, with the eighth team member Andrew Schnell withdrawing due to injury. Shawn Delierre, Shahier Razik, and Graeme Schnell were able to secure a few wins for the Canadian men, but none were able to advance past the fourth round.  One the Women’s side, Hollie Naughton and Nikki Todd found themselves out of contention earlier than anticipated with losses in the second and third rounds, respectively. Danielle Letourneau fought her way from an unseeded position to earn a berth in the semi-finals, where she fell to second-seeded Samantha Teran of Mexico, 3-0 (11-2, 11-9, 11-6). Letourneau’s efforts were still enough to win her a bronze medal.

Canada’s best finish came off the work of Samantha Cornett, the Women’s Team number 1 and top seed in the Women’s Individual event. Cornett worked her way to the Women’s final with wins over Ashley Degroot of Guyana, Colombia’s Catalina Pelaez and Americans Sabrina Sobhy and Olivia Blatchford. This set up the first and second seed final against Teran. Always a challenge playing a home crowd favourite in Mexico, Cornett lost the final 3-1 (9-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-3) to claim the silver medal for Canada.

The Doubles events brought Canada another bronze medal from the Women’s team of Danielle Letourneau and Nikole Todd, who lost in the semi-finals to the eventual Champions from Mexico. The teams of Schnell/Razik and Delierre/Naughton also competed in the Men’s and Mixed Doubles events, but weren’t able to find their way to the podium.

Podium hopes are still alive in the team competitions, as Canada won all five Pool Play matches on Thursday. The Women’s team, seeded third, had a busy day defeating Peru, Brazil and Guatemala 3-0 each. On the Men’s side, 3/4 seed Canada defeated both Guatemala and Brazil 3-0. Both teams are now onto the Quarter Finals, to be played Friday afternoon. The Canadian Women will take on Colombia, while the Men await the winner of the Colombia/Jamaica encounter.

The Pan American Squash Championships conclude on Saturday with the Team Competition Finals.






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