Egypt had a perfect day in Houston as both the men’s and women’s teams won the 2024 WSF World Junior Team Championship, the first time in squash history that the men’s and women’s competitions were held simultaneously.
In the women’s final, top seeds Amina Orfi and Fairouz Abou-El-Kheir again dominated, defeating second-seeded United States to record an astonishing ninth consecutive title, while in the men’s final, Mohammad Zakaria and Marwan Assal defeated dark horse South Korea to win their first title since 2016.
In the first final of the night, held at the Houston Squash Club, the Egyptian women’s team set the mood with another performance that highlighted their dominance in the competition over the past two decades, having appeared in every final since 2003 and winning all but one of them.
In the first match, Amina Orfi, who won a record three consecutive individual titles earlier this week, once again proved to be Egypt’s keeper, defeating American front-runner and individual bronze medallist Caroline Fouts 11-3, 11-6, 11-4.
Her next opponent was Fayrouz Aboelkhair, who along with Orfi was instrumental in Egypt’s victory in Melbourne last year, and was also in fine form, beating Liya Nabani comfortably 11-4, 11-7, 11-5.
Afterwards, coach Omneya Abdel Kawi said: “It’s fantastic to win the title two years in a row. It’s a record for them and for me as the coach. It was our target to achieve it and thank God mission accomplished!”
After watching their teammates win the women’s title, Egypt’s men’s team showed similarly strong form against a South Korean team playing in their first final.
Egypt opened the tournament with a tough defeat to South Africa in the pool stages, drawing heavy criticism from some fans online, but today’s performance was a redemption for the team.
First, individual junior champion Mohammad Zakaria put in a composed performance to defeat Na Chu Young in a rematch of the individual final, surviving Na’s fast starts in the first and second games to win 11-8, 11-9, 11-4.
Then it was the turn of Marwan Assal, who celebrated his 16th birthday today. Assal started brightly against Kun Kim, looking confident and hitting multiple winners to take the first two games 11-5, 11-4. Kim responded well in the third game, testing Assal’s nerves with an 11-7 win, but the Egyptian rallied back in the fourth to win 11-6 and give Egypt its first title since 2018, when his brother Mostafa was part of the team that lifted the trophy in Chennai, India.
“I’m very happy. It’s the first time we’ve won a trophy both as a coach and as a player. I’m grateful for everything we experienced and every moment. It was a really tough week. Early on, a lot of people pointed at us and said ‘we can’t win’ and ‘Egyptian squash has declined’ but deep down I had a hunch that we could win,” Egypt coach Andrew Shoukry said after the match.
Results: WSF World Junior Team Championships Women’s Final
[1] Egypt 2-0 [2] united states of america
Amina Orfi defeats Caroline Fouts 3-0: 11-3, 11-6, 11-4
Fairouz Aboelkhair bt Liya Navani 3-0: 11-4, 11-7, 11-5
Nadian Elhammy and Samantha Jaffe
Results: WSF World Junior Team Championships Men’s Final
[1] Egypt 2-0 [4] South Korea
Mohammad Zakaria vs Juyonna 3-0: 11-8, 11-9, 11-4
Marwan Assal vs Kun Kim 3-1: 11-5, 11-4, 7-11, 11-6
Marwan Abdelsalam w/d Jung Wook Ryu
To see all results from the final day of team events, click here.
The 2024 WSF World Junior Squash Championships took place at the Houston Squash Club, Texas from July 12th to 23rd. Find all the important information here.
Catch all the action at wsfworldjuniors.com
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