World Squash Day Sign-Ups Pass 10,000 Mark
from Tour Media
August 27, 2012 - World Squash Day will take place on October 20, 2012 with squash players across the globe showing their support for squash to gain admittance into the 2020 Olympics.
Organizers already have over 10,000 players signed up to participate.
World Squash Day was launched in honor of Derek Sword. He was a former Scottish junior international squash player who moved to America and was the squash champion at New York Athletic Club.
He worked at the World Trade Center and was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York.
Derek was friends with Scottish squash stars Peter Nicol and Martin Heath. Derek had become engaged to be married just two weeks before the terrible and tragic events of 9/11.
A number of friends got together to do something special to honour Derek’s memory and at the same time do something tangible for the sport of squash. Hence the birth of World Squash Day.
The first World Squash Day event took place on January 11 2002 when a New York team travelled to the UK to play a London team at the famous Lambs Club, which has sadly been demolished since. (It was once described by Jahangir Khan as the greatest squash club in the world).
That first World Squash Day in 2002 also included an eight-man invitation tournament that featured leading stars such as Peter Nicol, John White, Paul Price, Peter Marshall and Alister Walker.
World Squash Day is endorsed by the World Squash Federation and a different theme is chosen each year.
In 2009 the theme was “Squash for 2016″ and an amazing number of events took place worldwide to support squash’s bid for a place in the Olympics.
The idea was to raise the profile of the sport, to raise money for the Olympic bid, and to demonstrate that squash enjoys a truly global appeal.
The theme for 2010 was 20/10 for 2010. The aim was to encourage squash clubs all over the world to attract 20 new junior members and 10 new senior members to the sport. For 2011 the theme was “Here come the Girls”, to encourage new female players to take up the sport.
The theme for this year, 2012, will once again be to support squash’s Olympic aspirations. This time we will be backing the bid by the WSF for inclusion in the 2020 Games, which will be voted on by the IOC in 2013.
For more information on World Squash Day or to register your team, please visit WorldSquashDay.com.
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