(updated 21-jul-09 21:53 ) 

Egypt Seeded To Retain World Junior Crown In India

eIt's hardly a surprise that Egypt are seeded first for this year's Women's World Junior Teams, being held in Chennai, India, the hometown of WSF prexy N. Ramachandran. They are seeded to meet Malaysia in the finals, in what is sure to be an interesting competition. Of particular surprise is how fast English fortunes have fallen, with England being seeded only seventh - BELOW the USA for surely the first time ever. This indicates how quickly the squash talent around the world has begun to approach parity.

What is also a surprise, to us, is the anemic size of this year's field.

The WSF certain put forth its best efforts. They told SquashTalk, "We certainly have liked to see a greater number of teams entering and sent messages to this effect - and also extended the closing date."

It's too bad for the sport at a very visible juncture -- with so much publicity, squash community visibility and world squash community unity around the Olympic candidacy of the sport, a number of national temas are conspicuous by their absence. The field of sixteen is EIGHT FEWER than last time (Hong Kong, 2007) around.

Start with Europe - among the missing are Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Belgium (the hosts in 2005), Czech Republic, and Finland. Next up is Asia - missing are Japan, Korea and Pakistan (the latter understandibly for subcontinental political reasons). Then Africa - missing are Zimbabwe. And finally the Americas - missing are Mexico, Columbia and Brazil, among many others.

The WSF told SquashTalk today that among the reasons are the world economic downturn, and hesitancy on the part of some countries due to the recent Indian terrorist incidents.

Egypt, three-time winners of the trophy since 1999, are seeded to retain the Women's World Junior Team Squash Championship title in India next month - according to the interim seedings for the event announced today by the World Squash Federation.

Players from 16 nations will compete in the biennial WSF championship which will take place at the ICL Squash Academy in Chennai from 3-8 August - following the men's and women's individual world junior championships, which get underway on 29 July.

Heba El Torky, the 18-year-old world No42 from Alexandria who is expected to reach the women's individual final, will lead the Egyptian squad - which also includes her younger sister Nouran El Torky, as well as 13-year-old Nour El Sherbini, one of the youngest competitors in the championship.

Malaysia are named as second seeds and are expected to meet Egypt in a repeat of the 2007 final in Hong Kong.

Hosts India are seeded four - but will hope to finish higher than their best-ever fourth finish in the 2003 championship in Cairo. 

Seeded third, Canada are expected to record their highest-ever finish in 12 appearances since the inaugural event in 1985.

"Successful players in these world junior championships in Chennai would be expected to be in their prime by 2016 – when Squash hopes to be making its long-awaited debut in the Olympic Games," said WSF President N Ramachandran.

The final seedings, and positions in the pools, will be decided on semi-finals day of the individual women's championship.

Interim Team Seeding:
[1] Egypt; [2] Malaysia; [3] Canada; [4] India; [5] Hong Kong; [6] USA; [7] England; [8] France; [9] New Zealand; [10] Australia; [11] Netherlands; [12] Germany; [13] South Africa; [14] Denmark; [15] Spain; [16] Sweden.

SquashTalk will be covering this event, and in particular the fortunes of one of the strongest-ever USA squads, as the event develops.