31-Jan:
Teams fired up at
Opening ceremony
in Chennai
India's
Additional Chief Secretary to the Tamil Nadu Government GA
Rajkumar officially inaugurated the SDAT WSF Under-21 World
Cup at a special Opening Ceremony tonight in Chennai on the eve
of the new World Squash Federation championship getting underway
at the city's Indian Squash Academy.
Players representing the eight squash nations taking part in the
inaugural mixed team event took centre stage at the event hosted
by the Squash Rackets Federation of India.
Asian
Federation Coaching Director Major Maniam welcomed the
guests and introduced the top table including Mr Rajkumar,
representing the government's Youth Welfare & Sports Development
Department; SRFI Secretary General Srivatsan Subramaniam;
WSF President N Ramachandran; and WSF Technical Delegate
Martin Wren.
In his opening speech, Rajkumar highlighted the fact that "sport
is very important in character-building" and felt confident that
over the next few days "many nations around the world will be
proud of the effort their players put in on their behalf in the
World Cup."
After Rajkumar declared the World Cup open, Mr Ramachandran
draped a special robe around the government representative,
telling the audience that this is a traditional way of greeting
a guest.
Mr Rajkumar then symbolically confirmed the event underway by
cutting a special championship cake.
Egypt, led by the two reigning world junior champions Marwan El
Shorbagy and Nour El Tayeb, are favourites to win the U21 World
Cup, ahead of second seeds England, No3 seeds France, and hosts
India as fourth seeds.
The final stages of the event will be held on an all-glass show
court erected at the Express Avenue Mall, the largest shopping
complex in southern India.
In Wednesday's opening qualifying ties, Egypt take on fifth
seeds Australia, and India face eighth seeds Germany in Pool A,
while England line up against sixth seeds Hong Kong China in
Pool B, and France meet No7 seeds Malaysia. |
|