OTTAWA, ON – This past weekend saw eight of our top junior men travel from across the country to compete in the World Junior Men’s Canadian Team Trials at the Winnipeg Squash Racquets Club in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The trials consisted of a straight-knock out draw format, with the top two finishers qualifying for the Canadian team set to compete at the World Junior Men’s Team Championships in Namibia this summer. David Baillargeon of Quebec and Carter Robitaille of Toronto already earned spots on the team based on a selection process throughout the past two competitive squash seasons.
The competition began Friday evening with excellent first round matches and even some impressive upsets. Matthew Henderson, 17, of Victoria and Michael Mehl, 15, of Calgary were both given wildcard exemptions to participate in the event, and proved they deserved to be included in the elite group with first round upsets. Mehl defeated 3/4 seed Matthew Toth of Richmond 3-2, and Henderson took out second-seeded Alexi Gosset of Toronto 3-1.
Mehl and Henderson both dropped their semi-final matches to Vancouver’s Michael Thompson and Kingston’s Jarryd Osborne, respectively. This set up a 3rd place face-off between the two to determine the team’s alternate. Mehl won the match 3-0 to complete his impressive weekend and earn the reserve position.
Michael Thompson went on to win the event, defeating Jarryd Osborne 3-1 in Sunday’s final. With this finish, Thompson and Osborne join Baillargeon and Robitaille to form Team Canada who will compete at the 2014 World Junior Men’s Team Championships. The team will be coached by Jonathan Hill of Calgary.
The World Junior Squash Championships will take place in Windhoek, Namibia from August 10-21, 2014.
For more information:
Danny Da Costa
Executive Director, Squash Canada
TEL: (613) 731 7385 x 2301
ddacosta@squash.ca
