Team Canada members Hollie Naughton, Alyssa Mehta, Sophie Mehta, and Coach Richard Yendell
surrond Chloe Chemtob after her win over Malaysian Sivasangari Subramaniam. Source: WSF
Team Canada members Hollie Naughton, Alyssa Mehta, Sophie Mehta, and Coach Richard Yendell
surrond Chloe Chemtob after her win over Malaysian Sivasangari Subramaniam. Source: WSF
Wroclaw, Poland (July 27th, 2013) – Canada capped off a stunning 5th place finish at the Women’s World Junior Team Squash Championships, in Wroclaw, Poland, with a 2-0 victory over World #5 Malaysia. The Canadian team entered the competition as the 7th seed, and earned the right to face Malaysia after defeating World #6 India on Friday, 2-1. Canada finished with an overall 4-2 record at the Championships, only losing to the top 2 nations, the U.S. and World Champions, Egypt.
In today’s 5th place match, Canada’s #3 player, 15 year old Chloe Chemtob, capped of a great two weeks in Poland by defeating her Malaysian opponent Sivasangari Subramaniam 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-3). Chemtob, who won the “Plate Division” at the World Individuals a week earlier, was in great form all week, compiling a 3-2 record in match play.
Hollie Naughton, competing in her final junior career match for Canada, sealed the win with a 3-1 victory over Malaysian #1 Vanessa Raj 11-7, 11-8, 5-11, 11-6. Ranked #84 in the world on the Women’s Squash Association (WSA) World Rankings, Naughton was unsure if she would play in the Championships after suffering an ankle injury that required treatment in the hospital during the first day of training in Poland. The feisty Canadian captain led the Canadian team both on and off the court throughout the championships and is looking forward to her career representing Canada at the senior level beginning September 1 – 8, 2013 at the Pan American Championships in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
This years Canadian Team was comprised of: 18 year old, Hollie Naughton of Oakville, ON; Alyssa Mehta, 17, from Toronto, ON; and two 15 years olds, Chloe Chemtob of Montreal, QC and Sophie Mehta of Toronto, ON. Richard Yendell of Newmarket, ON captained the Canadian team at this year’s championships. Yendell is the Head Squash Professional at Mayfair Clubs, Parkway location in Markham, ON.
Squash Canada Executive Director, Danny Da Costa commented “we are thrilled to have finished 5th in the world. Our ladies performed exceptionally well this week and to beat two of the leading squash nations in the world in India and Malaysia back-to-back is very special; this week’s results bode very well for the future of Canadian squash”.
The 5th place finish is Canada’s second best result for a Junior Women’s Team at the World Championships, behind a 4th place finish in 1987. Canada has finished in 5th place on 4 previous occasions in 2009, 1997, 1989 and 1985.
Egypt won the World Team Championships for the 4th consecutive time defeating the U.S. 2-0 in the final. The Egyptians have won the World Junior Women’s title 6 of 8 past championships and have dominated the sport of squash for the past decade. Hong Kong finished in 3rd place upsetting World #3 England in the 3rd place match. For full results on this year’s World Jr. Team Championships visit http://hastalavista.pl/wjc-2013/strona-glowna-2?lang=en
About the World Squash Junior Championships
The World Squash Junior Championships is an annual squash championship that is contested by the top under-19 squash players in the world. Competitions are conducted in three categories: girls, boys and teams. The team competition alternates every year between girls and boys with 2013 featuring the girls’ team event. The 2013 team competition features squads from 16 countries grouped into four pools of four. For each fixture, competing countries select three team members to compete in a best of three singles format against the opposition. The top two teams from each pool advance to the quarterfinals where a standard playoff elimination format is used.
