7th World University Squash Championship

Melbourne, Australia - July 10th to 18th, 2010

A powerful Great Britain took the day at the 7th squash WUC held 'down under'

 

 

The great squash nation of Australia hosted the 7th WUC Squash in 2010. Monash University specifically had the pleasure of offering its infrastructures and umpires to our student athletes. Champions keep springing up in Australia in this physically demanding and technically sophisticated indoor sport, and it had been a while since the Australian University Sports Federation (AUSF) had volunteered to organize one of our WUC – it hosted windsurfing in 1994 and table tennis in 1996 – so we were delighted to go back to this country that so actively promotes high level university sports.

Only eleven countries made the trip, which is fairly few for a squash championship.  Nevertheless, with 38 participants who came mainly from Europe, North America, Asia and of course Australia, the championships deserved their world status. The sports installations at Monash University were perfect for the tournament. The courts (three in glass) had been refurbished recently for the Commonwealth Games in 2006, and they were refloored and repainted for championships.  So there was nothing but praise for the courts, as well as the comfortable housing and flawless transport. Fairly low temperatures (it was winter there) affected the play of some of the athletes, but that was the only negative point. We want to thank the organizing committee (backed by 55 volunteers from the international student community at the University itself) for its flexibility and excellent work, with our special appreciation for the magnificent Australian barbecue that topped off the opening ceremony.

The tournament began with individual competitions that were a great show from the very start. In the first rounds, some stars of the sport were already determined to shine, like the American duo Kirsten Lange and Logan Greer who took out Australian Selena Shaikh and Stacey Smith from New Zealand respectively. The local Melody Francis delighted her audience as she beat Canadian Micaala Seth in the first round. For the men, we also saw handsome performances from Schoor (Germany), Hinds (Great Britain) and Reid (Canada). But in the next round, Reid had the bad luck to run up against Leo Au, a young student at the Polytechnical School in Hong Kong, who was determined to take a double with his sister Annie, who competed in the ladies' tournament. They almost succeeded, as round after round, Annie Au bested her opponents to wind up in the finals across from British Emma Chorley. Leo was not so lucky – he lost to Joel Hinds, also from Britain, in the semi-final. So Hinds vied with German Jens Schoor who won a fantastic semi-final against American Todd Harrity.

The woman's final tipped to Annie Au. She ranks 15th worldwide, and did not have too much trouble overcoming Emma Chorley in three sets (11-8, 11-5, 11-4). At just 21, this student from the Hong Kong Polytechnical School was the favourite for the tournament. Her university title joins an already impressive list of wins.

For the men, Joel Hinds took a magnificent victory for Great Britain. Joel mastered Jens Schoor in three sets (11-6, 11-7, 11-2) in a match that was much closer than the score shows.

Great Britian came to Australia with a trained, experienced team that confirmed its leadership in the team competition ahead of Hong-Kong, USA and Canada, to conclude the 7th Australian edition. Rendez-vous for the next World University Squash Championships.

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