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Finals:
[1] Vanessa Raj
(Mas) 3-1 [2] Pansy Chan (Hkg)
11/3, 6/11,
11/7, 11/9 (52m)
[1] Kush Kumar (Ind) 3-1 [2] Syafiq Kamal (Mas)
11/9,
5/11, 11/9, 11/7 (57m)
India and Malaysia claim their
first Asian Youth Golds
 17
year old Kush Kumar, a trainee at the Indian Squash
Academy in Chennai, became the first Indian to win a Gold
medal at the 2nd Asian Youth Games 2013 being held in
Nanjing, China.
Kush started off well with an aggressive pace, but was being
caught time and again by Shafeeq's delicate drops and some
awesome deceptive play. However, Kush managed to narrowly
win the first. The second was an almost one sided affair
with Syafiq putting the ball away at will.
In the third, Kush was 8-3 down. He changed to a simple
basic game at medium pace. One massive rally and Syafiq
surrendered a few easy points and the game. Kush maintained
the same medium paced basic game to take the 4th game and
the Gold.
 Kush
was delighted after the match and said "I had to push very
hard when I was 3-8 in the 3rd game, because of the training
given at the ISA I was able to keep my focus and win. I want
to thank all my sponsors, my coaches at ISA, and the
federation for all their support."
"It is truly a great achievement for an India winning a gold
medal at these games, am sure we are only going to get
better" said National Coach Cyrus Poncha.
Mr. N. Ramachandran, WSF President, said "My heartiest
congratulations to both Malaysia and India for winning
individual Gold medals in the girls and boys categories
respectively. The Youth Games is a fantastic event for our
budding champions.
The girls finals played first was between Hong Kong's
Pansy Chan the 2nd seed and Malaysia's top seed
Vanessa Raj. Vanessa won the first easily but let down
by errors in the second.
She played much better lengths to win the third and fourth
games. Although Vanessa appeared tired she just about
managed to secure the last two points and the gold medal for
Malaysia.
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Squash debuts in
Nanjing
The Asian Youth Games is in the second edition, but squash
is making its debut here in Nanjing, China. Over 3,500
athletes aged 17 and under from 45 countries are competing
in 15 Olympic sports and one non Olympic ( but soon hope
to be soon) squash. The first Asian Youth Games was held in
Singapore four years ago.
The squash event comprises an individual and a team event.
Two players from each country are allowed to play in the
individuals whilst all three players play in the team event.
Girls' Draw & Results
Boys' Draw & Results
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Day One Matches
Morning matches got underway with wins for the players that
were expected to win - Choi Uen Shen, Satomi Watanabe and
Harsit Kaur all won through in the women’s event.
It is great to see so many different countries competing
even those that do not have a great history of squash at the
moment. China the host nation has 4 players competing in the
individual event with one of the boys advancing to the last
16 at the expense of a Thai player.
In the afternoon the Women’s event all went to the seeding
although the matches were tight, except one match where
Meth from Sri Lanka recorded an upset to beat Malaysia’s
Rachel Arnold. Vanessa Raj from Malaysia won through
in three games and will play Meth tomorrow.
Choi Uen Shen and Pansy Chan set up an all Hong Kong
affair in their semi final after wins over Harsit and Satomi
both in four games.
In the men’s event top seed Kush Kumar saw off Hamza
Alzubidi from Jordan in three games but the other player
from Jordan Mohammed Al Saraj extended second seed Syafiq
Kamal to five games.
There were other wins for Vijay Kumar, Ng Eain Yow, Israr
Ahmed, Chris Lo, Tsun Yuen Hei and Laksiri Ravindu from
Sri Lanka. |
Asian
Youth Games 2013
