Carol Owens:
November Player of the Month
By Martin Bronstein © 2002

It’s been a very good year for Carol Owens, perhaps the best year of her sporting life. She became a New Zealand citizen, she won gold and silver medals at the Commonwealth Games and on November 1st found herself at the top of the heap, ranked world number one above Sarah Fitz-Gerald, a player she has not beaten in two years, since her victory in the world open in Edinburgh in 2000.

Her very public split from the Australian squash authorities caused anguish everywhere and, as I broke the story on Squashtalk, made my name a byword for journalistic nastiness in Australia.

Owens is an immensely likeable lady, easy to talk to and open about her feelings. She carries a bit of a chip on her shoulder, and the feeling that she was always treated second best behind Fitz-Gerald caused her a lot of mixed emotions. A strong social attachment in New Zealand was the first reason to move her base to Auckland and when the Kiwi squash authorities gave her the attention – and the money – that she never got from Squash Australia, a change of allegiance was a foregone conclusion.
She received her citizenship papers in a special ceremony, worked hard with the New Zealand team under Dave Clarke for the Commonwealth Games, won a silver medal in the singles and a gold in the double with Leilani Rorani.

Just before leaving for the world team championships in Denmark in October, the NZ Academy of Sport flew all the past world top three finishers in world championships from every sport to Wellington for a black tie dinner in recognition off their achievements. This was the sort of recognition that Owens never got from Squash Australia and, with the gold medals, has made her change of nationality so sweet. She could have added the world team championship to her list had not Leilani withdrawn from the event because of her pregnancy.

COLLEGE USA
Schedules
Team previews

DEPARTMENTS
Latest news
Tournament Calendar
Bronstein Global Gallery
Player of the month
Videos
History
Pakistan Squash
School Squash
Camp Index
Features Index
Player Profiles
Worldwide Clubs
Worldwide Links
Rankings
Jobs

More Good stuff:
About Squash
Just starting
Books
Juniors Squash
Women's Squash
Regional Reports

Carol spoke to Martin Bronstein in Denmark in October... Starting with her new-found fame in New Zealand.

Carol Owens Battles with her Constant Rival Sarah Fitz-Gerald in Edinburgh
© Fritz Borchert

ARE YOU BEING RECOGNISED IN PUBLIC?
Very much so… I'm being recognised in the street and now I can’t walk into a café without somebody saying something. The Commonwealth Games medals meant a lot to New Zealand because it is a small country. Not so much the silver medal, which meant a lot more to me than the gold medal because it was the singles which is what we play, but people took notice of the gold medal and people stop me and say ‘Are you Carol Owens’ which is quite nice, but don’t want to be too well known. Being a part of the New Zealand team was a completely different experience to representing Australia. The team was such a close-knit bunch and the athletes really got behind each other. Athletes from other sports came to the squash to support us.

DID NEW ZEALAND GET MUCH TV COVERAGE OF THE GAMES?
Yes, but because of the time difference, everybody was getting up in the middle of the night to watch it. I’ve seen bits and pieces since I’ve been back. At this dinner they had a big screen and showed Leilani and I playing. They put together quite a few of our winning rallies and it was quite nice to watch.

WITH LEILANI’S RETIREMENT YOU ARE NOW NEW ZEALAND NUMBER ONE. HOW DOES THAT FEEL?
It’s been great in a lot of ways because squash is so recognised in New Zealand. For instance going to these dinners and meeting other athletes. I was never Australian number one because of Michelle Martin and Sarah Fitz-Gerald. I played in my first nationals soon after the games, and I still felt nervous because everyone was saying ‘now that Leilani’s gone you should win this one fairly easy.’ I played Sarah Cooke, who was a good player in her day, but it was nerve-wracking. Because I love being here and being part of the country, even though I sacrificed a lot to do it.

WHAT DID YOU SACRIFICE EXACTLY?
Going away from my family and a lot of my friends in Australia. I have nieces and nephews there who would like to see these medals even though I got them playing for New Zealand.

ARE YOU STILL WORKING ON YOUR GAME WITH PAUL WRIGHT?
Paul has been moving shop so I haven’t done a lot of work with him. I've done some work with the Dave Clarke [the NZ national coach]. You get to a stage where it is not really coaching, but just adding fine touches to your game. I can do that on my own now. I know what’s required. I haven’t beaten Sarah Fitz-Gerald consistently. I know what I have to do to beat her; it’s just being able to do it on the day.

Carol and Sarah at NY Grand Central (above and below) © Debra Tessier

DO YO HAVE MORE CONFIDENCE THAN YOU DID A COUPLE OF YEARS BACK?
Definitely. Confidence comes with experience. With every match you play you get used to the pressures of having to perform when you are expected to win. And the more you do that, the better you get at it. Beating Sarah has become a mental thing: Sarah has always been older than me and her mum was my first coach, so I almost looked up to Sarah and you have to lose that mental thing. If I play Tania Bailey or Stephanie Brind it’s the other way around : ‘I am older than you, you respect me and I should beat you’ sort of thing.

When you are number two in the world, there is only one goal left and that is to be number one. But I wouldn’t like to think I went to world number one without beating Sarah. I wouldn’t like her to retire before I beat her, because to me that is not an achievement. And if it works out in the rankings that I go above her because she has played some small tournaments [This is exactly what happened in the November rankings] which means I become number one without beating her, I won’t be shouting too much about it. You get to world number one because of consistency and never losing and that makes the world number one a special player.

IN THE EARLY ROUNDS OF A TOURNAMENT YOU MEET PLAYERS WHO ARE NOT AT A COMPARABLE LEVEL. HOW DO YOU HANDLE OVER-CONFIDENCE?
I never, ever under-estimate my opponents. That’s one of the reasons I have stayed fairly consistent. I had a bad British Open losing to Tania, but that is bound to happen occasionally. If anything, when I played Omney Abdel Kawy in the team championships, I rated her too much. But if you under-estimate your opponent you will end up playing sloppy squash.

BUT THERE IS A BIG JUMP FROM THE PLAYERS IN THE EARLY ROUNDS AND SUDDENLY YOU ARE ON COURT WITH SARAH. HOW DO YOU HANDLE THE DIFFERENCE?
Sometimes I play some guys, who will push me. I remember when I beat Sarah in the Victoria Open, I played Robin Cooper in the morning and it was a really good game. When I played Sarah in the afternoon, I was more relaxed. Not so hyper. Sometimes when I play Sarah, I get too anxious and go for things too quickly. Maybe if I take some of that edge off myself, it might just relax me a bit. Who knows, maybe before the match I should go out and do some 400’s to slow me down and make me think a little bit more instead of just running around like a headless chook.(!)

YOU ARE NOW 31. HAVE YOU PUT ANY TIME LIMIT ON YOUR PLAYING LIFE?
Not really, as long as my body holds out. It’s been pretty good, very few injuries. The travelling gets hard from New Zealand, travelling long distance all the time. It always helps if you can play a two or three tournaments in a row.

Squashtalk.com All materials © 1999-2003. Communicate with us at info@squashtalk.com.
Published by Squashtalk LLC, 95 Martha's Point Rd. Concord MA 01742 USA, Editor and Publisher Ron Beck,
Graphics editor Debra Tessier Send comments, ideas, contributions and feedback to the webmaster.
Copyright © 1999-2003 SquashTalk, all rights reserved, may not be reproduced in any form except for one-time personal use.

Carol Owens: November Player of the Month By Martin Bronstein © 2002

Carol Owens:
November Player of the Month
By Martin Bronstein © 2002