Toronto (ON) – Two bronze medals for the Canadian squash team! Shawn Delierre and Samantha Cornett won bronze in their respective Single events this past weekend in front of an energetic Canadian crowd at the Direct Energy Centre.
The weekend saw the commencement of the Men’s and Women’s singles events, running from Saturday, July 11 to Monday, July 13. With 21 athletes competing in the Men’s competition and 15 in the Women’s draw, the Canadian athletes had a tough road ahead of them.
Toronto (ON) – Two bronze medals for the Canadian squash team! Shawn Delierre and Samantha Cornett won bronze in their respective Single events this past weekend in front of an energetic Canadian crowd at the Direct Energy Centre.
The weekend saw the commencement of the Men’s and Women’s singles events, running from Saturday, July 11 to Monday, July 13. With 21 athletes competing in the Men’s competition and 15 in the Women’s draw, the Canadian athletes had a tough road ahead of them.
Competing for the home squad in the Men’s Singles event was Shawn Delierre and Andrew Schnell. Both men received a bye past the first round on Saturday. Delierre won his opening match against Seth Sunil (GUY) 3-0 (11-3, 11-8, 11-8) in only 32 minutes. Schnell dropped his match to Roberto Pezzota (ARG) 1-3 (9-11, 7-11, 11-9, 4-11). On Sunday, Delierre defeated American Todd Harrity 3-1 (11-8, 6-11, 12-10, 11-9) to solidify a position in the Semifinals and a medal for Canada. Meeting Delierre in the Semifinals was Miguel Rodriguez, ranked fourth in the PSA. In a hard fought match, Delierre lost 0-3 (7-11, 8-11, 8-11). With the loss, Delierre took home a bronze medal, as both Semifinal losers take home bronze medals.
In the other Semifinal, Diego Elias and Cesar Salazar battled it out for a shot at the Finals. Acting Executive Director Steve Wren offered his take on the match: “Diego didn't show such command against the stronger Salazar in their semi. Some missed touch drops, fantastic court coverage by Salazar and constant pressure applied had Diego staring at a 3-0 loss unless fortune came his way… which it did. In the 3rd Salazar showed signs of a leg issue that seemed to trouble him at the end of his earlier 5 set quarter. In the 3rd set Salazar was playing to the guess, taking shortcuts and he was visibly taking a break. By the end of the 3rd Salazar had already run out of injury timeouts and would've wanted more, but by the time they were to begin the 4th Salazar called it a match. Diego, gained a fortunate passage to the gold medal match.” Salazar was up 2-1 before retiring the match due to injury, allowing Elias to reach the Finals. The Men’s Singles Finals goes today at 6:30pm E.T.
Samantha Cornett and Hollie Naughton represented Canada in the Women’s Singles event. Cornett played Pamela Anckerman (GUA) in her first match and won 3-0 (11-6, 11-4, 11-0) in only 13 minutes. Naughton followed Cornett’s footsteps against Fernanda Rocha (ARG), winning 3-0 in only 17 minutes (11-4, 11-5, 11-6) and setting up a Quaterfinal match against Mexico’s Samantha Teran on Sunday. Naughton won the first game against Teran 11-7, but dropped the next three (7-11, 9-11, 0-11) and was eliminated from the event. Cornett matched up against Giselle Delgado (CHI) in her Quarterfinal and won 3-0 (11-6, 11-5, 11-5), advancing to the Semifinal against Amanda Sobhy, ranked 10th in the PSA World Rankings. Cornett fought hard, but fell to the American 1-3 (2-11, 11-3, 4-11, 6-11). Cornett picked up her third Pan Am medal of her career by winning the bronze medal and now has a gold, silver and bronze in her Pan American Games tenure. In the other Semifinal, American Olivia Blatchford defeated Samantha Teran 3-0 (11-7, 11-6, 11-7) making it an all-American final. Blatchford and Sobhy will battle for gold at 8:30pm E.T.
Congratulations to Sam and Shawn for winning the bronze medals and to Andrew and Hollie for making it the Quarterfinals. Canada is proud!
The next event is Men’s and Women’s Doubles, running from July 13-14, followed by the Team Event, which starts July 14 and goes to July 17.
For full event results, schedules and more, go to: http://results.toronto2015.org/IRS/en/squash/schedule-and-results.htm
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Go Canada Go!
