Egypt win men, women titles at World Juniors

ISLAMABAD: Egypt enjoyed a double delight winning the WSF World Junior Team Championships titles following Mohamad Zakaria’s thumping win to grab the individual title.

However, WSF World Junior event proved a nightmare for Pakistan as defending champion Hamza Khan failed to even make it to the semi-finals while again in the team event Pakistan were beaten by squash minnows Colombia in the quarter-finals.

Egypt’s Zakaria and Marwan Asal took down dark horses Republic of Korea in the men’s team final as they won the title for the first time since 2018. Egypt also won women’s singles and team events.

After watching their teammates winning the women’s title, Egypt’s men were also in good form against the first team from Republic of Korea to reach the final, taking their first title since 2018 when Marwan’s brother Mostafa was part of the squad that lifted the trophy in Chennai, India.

“I’m over the moon. As a coach, or player, it’s the first time I’ve won the trophy,” said Egypt’s Coach Andrew Shoukry. “I’m thankful for everything and every moment that we had. It was a really a tough week, in those early stages when lots of people were pointing at us saying: “we’re not going to make it” and “squash in Egypt has dropped” but I had a feeling, deep inside, that we were going to make it.” At the prize distribution ceremony the medallists were joined by winners of the sportsmanship awards, given to the athletes who had best exemplified the spirit of squash.