Iran Squash Boasts Record Growth from WSF Media
Iran Women's Premier League champions Tehran
21 May 2013
- With the squash court count doubling over the past three years and
the number of registered players rising five-fold, the Iran Squash
Federation is reporting record growth for the sport in Iran -
particularly amongst women and girls.
At the elite level, Iran has made a huge progress over recent years in
the region. From outside the top 16, the Iran team finished in seventh
place in the Asian Junior Championships two months ago in Korea.
Furthermore, Iranian girls will participate for the first time in the forthcoming Asian Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing.
"Establishing the squash association with civic authorities and the
Education Ministry has speeded up the growth of the sport
dramatically," said ISF President Masoud Soleimani. "Today many parks
in the capital city Tehran have one-wall squash. Also in schools,
one-wall squash is popular, and some classrooms have been modified so
squash can be taught."
Some 400 women coaches have been trained to promote squash amongst
young children in kindergartens. To this end, light plastic rackets
have been specially designed and produced. The balls are also lighter
and bigger - especially designed for the kids - named 'smile balls'.
Iran Squash Federation budgets are equally divided between initiatives
for men and women. As a result of this, women's squash has become very
successful over the past three years.
"Sogol Samoodi, our U17 girl who was placed sixth in Asia in 2011, is
the first lady to achieve this from Iran," explained Soleimani. "Ailee
Nayeri, our U13 champion, also reached the Asia top 10.
"Also, for the first time in the history of the game here, Iran had six
boys and six girls in the top eight players of different age categories
in 19th Asian Junior Individual Championship in Kish Island, Iran,"
added the ISF President. "This was the first major championship hosted
in Iran, in which Iran was very successful and responded very
positively to the trust of Asian Squash Federation.
"This success led Iran to become the host of this championship again in
2014 - another huge achievement for the country at international
levels."
