Pakistan wins World Junior Squash Championship after 37 years

KARACHI: Pakistan's Hamza Khan on Sunday beat Egypt's Mohamed Zakaria in the World Junior Squash Championship in Melbourne, ending nearly a four decades trophy drought. 

Pakistan returned to the world squash podium with Hamza's comeback against Zakaria in a 3-1 victory. 

This was Pakistan's first World Junior Squash title in 37 years, as the last Pakistani to lift this trophy was Jansher Khan, who won the title in 1986.

The final between Hamza and Zakaria started off in an exciting manner with two back-to-back games, ending up in tiebreakers. However, Hamza convincingly took the following two games to complete a 3-1 win.

Meanwhile, Zakaria took the lead in the second game, which lasted for 26 minutes with a score of 12-10.

It was another thrilling encounter as the Pakistani was down 8-10 but denied the Egyptian the much-needed game point twice and levelled the match with a 14-12 win.

The next two games were a total contradiction to what everyone witnessed in the first two games. Hamza won the third game without much resistance in just 6 minutes with a score of 11-3, before finally winning the 4th with a score of 11-6.

Hamza qualified for the final of the World Junior Squash Championship on Saturday. French player Melvil Scianimanico fought back from two games and match ball down, but Hamza prevailed in the decider to qualify for the final.

PM hopes Hamza would make Pakistan invincible again

Reacting to the win, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif felicitated Hamza, the nation and all the players for winning the World Junior Squash Championship.

Radio Pakistan, citing a statement, said the PM thanked Hamza for giving the title to Pakistan again after 37 years.

"Hamza Khan has recalled the victory of 1986 World Squash Champion Jan Sher Khan," said PM Shehbaz.

The PM hoped that Hamza will make Pakistan invincible in Squash again in the near future. He also congratulated Hamza Khan's parents, coach and all the team members.

President Arif Alvi recalled that Pakistan "had an unprecedented and yet unmatched supremacy in squash"

"I had personally watched many finals among our giants. After a long time a resurgent ray of hope. Well done," said the president.  

President Alvi also stated that he was "overwhelmed with the true and high spirits" of the Pakistani youth who want want to bring themselves to the mainstream of sports.

Squash legend Jahangir Khan congratulates Hamza

Squash legend Jahangir Khan, while talking to Geo News, also congratulated Hamza on his victory, however, lamented the state of the sport in Pakistan.

“I think that it should not have taken us so many years for this victory. In the past, Pakistan had its own position in squash and should have had continuous victories because of the level we used to play at,” said Jahangir. He added that even right now it was not too late and Pakistan can regain its lost glory.

“We can improve squash and run it on merit. People running squash should be experts and [be appointed on] merit,” said the former squash player. He lamented that it was a pity that Hamza's coach could not go with him to the tournament.

“If the [squash] federation is run in a professional manner, [Pakistan] can win every year. There is no shortage of talent in Pakistan,” said Jahangir.