The World Junior Squash Championships got underway on Saturday evening when more than 250 players and officials from 30 nations attended the official opening ceremony at the Wanderers Sports Club.
The event was also attended by dignitaries from the World Squash Federation, including the tournament’ technical director, Liz Eddison from South Africa and the tournament referee Lucky Mlilo from Zimbabwe.
The championship director, Tyc Kakehongo said Namibia’s hosting of the event was the culmination of a dream.
“It’s very rare that Namibia gets to host international sporting events, but this is the culmination of a dream. We hosted the African Senior Squash Championships last year and that culminated in this event that we are hosting now.”
“There are players from all the continents here while we have several officials and referees from the World Squash Federation here as well,” he added.
The chairperson of the Namibia Sport Commission Vivienne Katjioungua welcomed the participants to Namibia and also congratulated the Namibia Squash Association for securing the championships.
“I’d like to thank the Namibia Squash Association for bringing an event of such magnitude to Namibia. We will also host the African Women’s Football Championships in October so we will have to learn from each other to host top class events,” she said.
Quinton van Rooyen, the managing director of the title sponsor, Trustco, said the World Junior Squash Championships was a milestone for Namibia as well as for Trustco.
“This is also a milestone for Trustco. This is the culmination of years of investment and commitment to the development of squash in Namibia, after we started investing in squash 10 years ago.
“Trustco is delighted to be able to participate in this event and we will remain committed to the development of squash in Namibia,” he said.
The first matches got underway on Sunday as the men’s individual tournament took centre stage.
Namibian players did not fare too well as all five Namibians lost their matches yesterday.
Gerhardus Lottering played the opening match on the glass court against James Evans of England, but provided little opposition as Evans won the match in straight sets, 11-2, 11-3, 11-5.
Namibia’s top ranked junior player Le-Hugo van Rooyen also lost in straight sets, going down 11-4, 11-6, 11-1 to Edmon Lopez-Moller of Spain.
Carel Olivier lost 11-0, 11-4, 11-5 against Santiago Orozco of Columbia; George Bekker lost 11-1, 11-1, 11-1 against Federico Cioffi of Argentina and Kyle Kriel lost 11-5, 11-2, 11-6 against Nikolas Valderrama of Columbia.
The tournament continues at 11h00 on Monday morning when the men’s top seed, Diego Elias from Peru takes on James Evans of England on the glass court.
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