By Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK – The draw for the individual men and women World Junior Squash Championships is out, with Namibia fielding 11 top players to compete against some of the world’s best from 10-21 August on domestic soil.
Namibia has 6 men and 5 women players set to battle it out in the individual event, to be followed by the Men’s World Junior Team Championships starting from 16-21 August, a historic first-ever for Namibia.
Namibia was chosen to host the event in September last year and have thus far made remarkable progress and anticipates attracting a total of 167 credible players from across the world. The championship takes place at Wanderers Sports Club and the Klein Windhoek Squash Courts.
Namibia’s finest junior men and women players are pitted against some accomplished players on the junior world circuit. For junior men, Namibia has Gerhardus Lottering who sweats it out in the opener against James Evans from England, while Dylan Marc Spencer is drawn against Mohammad Alsarraj from Jordan.
Le Hugo van Rooyen of Namibia face Edmond Lopez from Spain, as Carel Olivier goes up against Santiago Orozco from Colombia. Diederick Bekker meets Federico Cioffi from Argentina next. Namibia’s upcoming star, Kyle Kriel face Colombia’s Nicolas Valderrama in his opener with a view to impress in his first ever tournament on the world front.
For women, Nhadia Gustavo squares-off against Anandita Gupta of India, while Lida-Marie Calitz has a date with Papua New Guinea’s Lynette Vai, before Elsje van der Merwe comes in contention against Nadia Pfister of Switzerland. Daniela Scriba is drawn against Germany’s Nele Hatschek as Alyssa Cummings will test Oludamnilola Oluwafemi of Nigeria.
Competing countries are South Africa, Zimbabwe, Peru, Nigeria, Peru, Israel, Guatemala, Finland, New Zealand, England, Argentina, France, USA, Canada, Sweden, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Kuwait, Botswana, Ireland, Spain, Colombia, Qatar, Jordan, Switzerland, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Egypt and Malaysia.