Egypt, Pakistan, England & Australia
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Egypt, Pakistan, Australia and hosts England shared the
spoils in the British Junior Open Squash Championships in Sheffield - with
Egypt claiming four of the eight titles and Pakistan taking two to register
the country's first success in the prestigious tournament since 1982.
Beaten finalist twelve months ago, favourite James Willstrop secured the
Men's U-19 title, for the Drysdale Cup, in some style - beating fellow
Englishman Peter Barker 9-6, 9-5, 9-4 in the 47-minute final to become the
only domestic winner without conceding a game throughout the event. The
talented 18-year-old from Pontefract in Yorkshire, runner-up in last year's
European Junior Championships, now has British Junior Open titles at U-14,
U-17 and U-19, and will seek to end his glittering junior career on a high
this summer by winning the world junior crown in India.
Egypt's Omneya Abdel Kawy, still just 16, claimed the women's U-19 title for
the second year running after defeating Switzerland's Manuela Zehnder 10-8,
9-6, 9-0 in the final. Zehnder, the fourth seed, upset England's No2 seed
Laura-Jane Lengthorn in the semi-finals, but was unable to stop Kawy
clinching her fifth successive British Junior Open trophy.
Pakistan squash achieved a much-needed boost by providing all four players -
against the seedings - in the Men's U-17 and U-15 finals, with 7th seed
Safeer Khan beating unseeded Khalid Atlas 9-6, 9-5, 9-2, in the U-17 climax
to become the country's first British Junior Open winner since Asad Ahmed
claimed the U-16 trophy twenty years ago. Atlas removed Egyptian top seed
Sherif Mostafa Kamel in the semi-finals, while Khan despatched No2 seed
Mahmoud Adel, also from Egypt, at the same stage for the loss of just six
points.
The U-15 final was an unseeded contest, with Farahan Mehboob eventually
overcoming Yasir Butt 7-9, 9-1, 9-4, 8-10, 9-4.
Kasey Brown became the first Australian since Carin Clonda in 1979 to claim
a women's British Junior Open title when she clinched her anticipated U-17
final win over Egypt's No2 seed Sara Badr. Brown's 9-6, 9-3, 9-2 victory
marked the end of a three-year unbeaten run by Badr who won the U-15 title
in January 2001, and the U-13 crown over the previous two years.
The remaining titles went according to seedings - in all-Egyptian finals.
Raneem El-Welily beat Nihal Yehia 6-9, 9-2, 9-7, 9-5 in the women's U-15
final to claim her second successive Sheffield crown, while in the U-13
final, Shahenda Osama defeated Esraa Samy Saied 9-2, 9-2, 9-2. The Men's
U-13 event became an exclusive Egyptian affair by the semi-final stage -
which ultimately concluded with a 9-0, 9-7, 9-0 victory by Mohamed Aly Anwar
over Mohamed Said Mahmoud in the final.
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