Egyptian squash players surprised the audience when they won the highest ranks in the 2016 British Junior Open Squash Championship, which concluded its events in January in Sheffield, England.
This championship is divided into eight categories; for boys and girls aged under 13, 15, and 19 years old, respectively.
Egyptian junior squash players Omar El-Torky, Youssef Ibrahim, and Youssef Soliman won a gold medal each for the under 15, under 17, and under 19 divisions, respectively.
Egyptian junior squash player Tamer El-Shamy came in seventh place in the under 15 division and Egyptian junior squash player Abdallah Yasser took ninth place in the under 17 division .
English junior squash player Sam Todd won the under 13 gold medal, although several Egyptian players also took leading spots in the under 13 category. Egyptian Ahmed Wael and Youssef Asser came in sixth and in eighth places, respectively.
From 1999 until 2016, the championship was celebrated 18 times. In the under 13 division, Egypt took gold 12 times out of those 18, thanks to Egyptian squash players Tarek Momen, Mohammed Ali Anwar Reda, Karim Ali Fathi, Osama Khalifa, Amr Aboul Souad, Youssef Mohamed, Ziad Sakr, Mohamed El-Shamy, and Yehia El-Nawasany.
In 1999 and 2000, Egyptian squash player Ramy Ashour won the under 13 division consecutively. Egyptian squash player Mohamed El-Shamy also won consecutively in 2014 and 2015, in the under 13division.
As for the 2016 British Junior Open Squash Championship’s in the girls’ category, Egyptian squash player Sana Mahmoud, Hania El-Hammamy, and Nouran Gohar won gold medals for the under 13, under 17, and under 19 divisions, respectively. The under 15 gold medal went to Malaysian squash player Aifa Azman.
In the girl’s under 15 division, from 1999 until 2016, Egyptian junior female players won 14 times out of the 18 British Junior Open Squash Championship.
The victories in this division in 1999 and 2000 were achieved by the now-famous Egyptian squash player Omenya Abdel Kawy. Egyptian player Raneem El-Weleily, currently renowned on a worldwide scale, also won the championship’s under the 15 divisions twice in 2002 and 2003.
The 2005 and 2006’s first places went to Egyptian squash player Heba El-Torky in the under 15 division and Nour El-Tayeb came in first place in 2008 in the same category. As for the years 2001, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2015, the gold medals went to Sara Badr, Nour El-Sherbini, Yathreb Adel, Salma Hany, Nouran Ahmed Gohar, Habiba Mohamed, and Hania El-Hammamy, respectively.
Youssef Soliman, Hania El-Hammamy, Ahmed Wael, Youssef Asser, Tamer El-Shamy, and Abdallah Yasser currently play for the Egyptian Heliopolis Sporting Club.
The British Junior Open Squash Championship is considered the second most prestigious junior open squash championship throughout squash history. The World Junior Squash Championships is considered the most prestigious.
