Egypt complete double in Squash Championships
Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
SQUASH powerhouse Egypt completed a double at the ongoing Squash Federation of Africa Senior Championships by winning the men’s and women’s finals at Suburbs Squash Club in Bulawayo on Monday.
The final day of the teams’ competition saw Egyptian women proving too strong for their South African counterparts, winning 2-1 in the final. The Egyptian men also won by the same score line against the same opponents.
In the women’s final, South Africa drew first blood with Lizelle Muller winning 3-1 against Nour Waageh (5-11, 11-9, 11-3, 11-2) to get the South Africans up and running in what turned out to be an interesting clash. The North Africans however came out guns blazing to win the next two games.
Menna Walid beat Cheyna Wood 3-2 (11-3, 12-10, 8-11, 10-12, 11-5) to settle the scores before Kenzy Ayman rounded up the match for Egypt with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-6, 11-7) win over Hayley Ward to hand Egypt the title in the women’s section.
In what turned out to be the match of the tournament, the men’s final lived up to expectations as the two squash powerhouses battled it out for close to three hours. South Africa drew first blood with Dewald Van Niekerk winning 3-1 against Khaled Labib (11-6, 6-11, 11-6, 11-6) to get the South Africans up and running in what turned out to be squash of the highest level. The North Africans however came out guns blazing to win the next two matches.
Yasin Shafei beat Jean Pierre 3-love (11-5, 11-1, 11-6) to settle the scores before Seif Elshenawy rounded up the match for Egypt with a 3-1 (11-9, 11-7, 9-11, 11-9) win over Damian Groenewald to hand Egypt the title in the men’s section and complete the double.
Egypt coach Mohamed Elkeiy was impressed with the way his teams performed, especially with the women’s team as it was their junior side (which is number one in the juniors world rankings) thus it proved a challenge for them as they faced senior teams of other nations.
“It was a challenge because we came here with our junior team, we did not come with our senior team and we played with senior teams of all nations so it was a challenge for us and the final match against South Africa was tough we won 2-1 in a tough game.
“We are so proud of all of them, our junior team already is number one in the world in the juniors so in this occasion we wanted to give them the chance to play for the seniors and they did well and won the tournament and won the trophy for Egypt, we see it very valuable,” said Elkeiy.
With the men’s team making it a double for the Egyptians, the excited coach said they are now looking at having their players win the individual event which got underway today.
Squash Federation of Africa president, Lucky Mlilo, who is also Squash Racquets Association of Zimbabwe chairman Lucky Mlilo is excited with the way the team’s event went and promised an interesting individual event.
“I’m quite happy that the team events have gone so well, we have just seen Egypt emerging as winners in the ladies’ section and in the men’s section. They have just proved again that they are a force to reckon with, it has been a very long team event and we really enjoyed it.
“We expect the fireworks in the individual event, it’s definitely fireworks because now it’s one person representing himself it’s not like you are carrying the country on your back, of course you will
be representing your country but when playing individuals you can meet your fellow countrymen and it’s a dog-eat-dog situation so I’m expecting fireworks,” said Mlilo.
– @brandon_malvin
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