Stars Take Speed Test To Highlight World Squash Day 2014 by Howard Harding 16 October 2014
- Some amazing events are taking place all over the planet on World
Squash Day - the theme of which is Go For It! - this Saturday (October
18th).
Key events being
staged provide a link between showcasing the world's leading players
and club-level activities supporting the grass-roots of the game.
Saturday is also
finals day of the Delaware Investments US Open in Philadelphia, where
leading professionals will take part in a World Squash Day Radar Gun
Challenge.
Cameron Pilley, the world number 22 from Australia, holds the world record with a ball speed of 176 miles per hour.
A simultaneous radar
gun challenge will also be taking place in England during the WSD
Doubles competition at The Mote Squash Club in Kent.
One of the competitors, English player Robert Downer, holds a personal best speed of 171 miles per hour.
The event is being staged by WSD Founder Alan Thatcher to jointly promote doubles play and eye safety in squash.
Among the highlights
of other events taking place, squash enthusiasts in Canberra will
congregate at Australia's Parliament House for a rally before
dispersing to squash clubs all over the city to hold open days designed
to attract new people to the sport.
In Poland, squash players are invited to upload "selfies" of themselves playing in World Squash Day events to win prizes.
The most daunting
challenge faces two squash enthusiasts in Lichfield, England. Lichfield
club chairman James Roberts and his team-mate Mark Davey will be
attempting to play seven matches at seven clubs in seven hours.
They were inspired by
a global challenge undertaken last year by former world champion Peter
Nicol and his friend and business partner Tim Garner, who played seven
matches on seven continents in seven days to support the sport's
Olympic bid.
