SQUASH CANADA – (Ottawa, ON) Squash Canada has announced that it has withdrawn the Canadian entry to the World Squash Federation’s (WSF) 2015 World Men Team Championship, scheduled December 12-18 in Cairo, Egypt amid security concerns for its athletes and team support personnel.
SQUASH CANADA – (Ottawa, ON) Squash Canada has announced that it has withdrawn the Canadian entry to the World Squash Federation’s (WSF) 2015 World Men Team Championship, scheduled December 12-18 in Cairo, Egypt amid security concerns for its athletes and team support personnel.
The Government of Canada has a current travel advisory for Egypt, “advising against non-essential travel to Egypt due to the unpredictable security situation.” Squash Canada sought and reviewed security measures for the event, conducted a lengthy and comprehensive review of all information solicited from legal advisors, insurers and government agencies, and concluded that the inherent risk in the country cannot be mitigated to an acceptable level.
Four other prominent nations [seed] have likewise withdrawn in the last 24 hours – England [2], France [3], Germany [6] and USA [14].
The Championships were originally planned for Kuwait. On October 30th of this year, the WSF advised that Kuwait would no longer host the event. Weeks earlier, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had suspended the Kuwait national Olympic committee for the second time in five years. The WSF in turn suspended the Kuwait Squash Federation, and immediately relocated the event to Cairo, Egypt.
Since the announcement of the change in location of the championship, Squash Canada has implored the WSF to re-schedule and re-locate the event to a region which holds no heightened security risk, after which Canada would reconsider its participation.
Earlier this year, the WSF re-located the 2015 World Junior Championships from Egypt to The Netherlands due to travel concerns expressed by many of the participating countries.
“I assure our athletes and community that the decision was not taken lightly”, explained Squash Canada Executive Director, Dan Wolfenden. “We understand the years of commitment our athletes have made to the sport, the preparation they have put in, and the meaningfulness of wearing ‘Canada’ on their backs on the world stage. The safety and well-being of the team remained at the forefront of our difficult decision.”
ABOUT SQUASH CANADA
Founded in 1913, Squash Canada is a non-profit, national sport governing body responsible for the development of athletes, coaches and officials and sets the standards for Canadian squash. Squash Canada is a proud member of the Pan-American and World Squash Federations and participates in the Pan-American Championships, Commonwealth & Pan-Am Games as well as World Championships at the junior and senior level. Each year Squash Canada hosts nine national championships across the country and works with its provincial and territorial partners to promote the growth and development of squash across the country. For more information please visit www.squash.ca.
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INFORMATION
Dan Wolfenden
Executive Director
Squash Canada
(613) 228-7724 x201
