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European Junior U19 Team Championship,
Kriens, Switzerland
England
Retain European Junior Team Championship Title
England
retained the European Junior (U19) Team Squash Championship title in
style by beating second seeds Belgium 3/0 in the final of the
European Squash Federation event in Kriens, Switzerland.
The
victory, their 25th in the 28-year history of the championships, rounded off
a highly-successful campaign in Kriens where team members Nathan Lake
and Emily Whitlock had earlier won the individual European titles.
But
Belgium, celebrating their first ever appearance in the final, had the
distinction of taking the first game against the mighty favourites when
Jan van den Herrewegen extended the England number two Declan James
to four games before the 17-year-old from Nottingham prevailed to win 11-9,
11-8, 10-12, 12-10.
However,
both Nathan Lake and Emily Whitlock marked their tenth
straight games win in a row in the Swiss town to clinch England's victory -
18-year-old Lake, from Cheltenham, beating Tom de Mulder 11-3, 11-8,
11-8, and 17-year-old Colwyn Bay-based Whitlock defeating Nele Gilis
11-5, 11-3, 11-2.
In the
play-off for third place, fifth seeds Czech Republic stunned five
times runners-up France, the third seeds, 2/1 to secure their best
finish in their 14th appearance in the championships.
Spain
also had much to celebrate: The seventh seeds overcame fourth seeds Wales
in the play-off for fifth place to record their best finish since 2001. It
was women's individual championship runner-up Tesni Evans who claimed
the consolation point for Wales, beating Spain's Marina de Juan in
straight games to maintain her unbeaten run in the team championship.
In their
first appearance in the championships since 1999, Portugal beat
Israel 2/1 in the 11th place play-off to mark their best ever finish.
And
Poland celebrated their maiden appearance in the championships by
winning the play-off for 17th place.
Final:
[1] ENGLAND bt [2] BELGIUM 3/0
Nathan Lake bt Tom de Mulder 11-3, 11-8, 11-8
Declan James bt Jan van den Herrewegen 11-9, 11-8, 10-12,
12-10
Emily Whitlock bt Nele Gilis 11-5, 11-3, 11-2
3rd place
play-off:
[5] CZECH REPUBLIC bt [3] FRANCE 2/1
Daniel Mekbib bt Jerome Dadot 11-7, 11-9, 11-7
Martin Svec bt Alexandre Cogno 11-3, 11-8, 11-5
Kristina Alexova lost to Melissa Alves 7-11, 8-11, 4-11
5th place
play-off:
[7] SPAIN bt [4] WALES 2/1
Hugo Varela bt Nyall Driscoll 11-7, 11-9, 11-8
Aitor Zunzunegui bt Will John 11-6, 6-11, 11-8, 11-6
Marina de Juan lost to Tesni Evans 3-11, 9-11, 7-11
7th place
play-off:
[8] GERMANY bt [6] SWITZERLAND 2/1
Simon Vaclahovsky bt Joel Siewerdt 12-10, 11-9, 11-0
Sven Lemmermann lost to Cedric Kuchen 7-11, 8-11
Caroline Sayegh bt Nadine Frey 11-3, 11-2, 11-2
9th place
play-off:
[9] SCOTLAND bt [13] HUNGARY 3/0
Greg Lobban bt Benedek Sebok 11-5, 11-7, 11-1
Douglas Kempsell bt Gabor Szabo 11-7, 11-5, 11-5
Mhairi Charlton bt Eszter Csokasi 11-9, 9-11, 11-3, 11-2
11th place
play-off:
[12] PORTUGAL bt [16] ISRAEL 2/1
Rui Soares bt Daniel Poleshchuk 8-11, 12-10, 11-9, 16-14
Marco Alves lost to Roee Avraham 7-11, 10-12, 12-14
Camille Lanier bt Inbar Grossberg 11-4, 11-8, 11-5
13th place
play-off:
[10] NETHERLANDS bt [15] IRELAND 3/0
Marc ter Sluis bt Conor O'Shea 11-5, 5-11, 11-9, 4-11, 11-7
Guido Ploem bt Conor Lavin 11-4, 4-11, 11-6, 11-4
Ilona Lagerweij bt Jennifer Hegarty 11-3, 11-2, 11-6
15th place
play-off:
[11] FINLAND bt [14] SWEDEN 2/1
Jaakko Vahamaa bt Bjorn Angtoft 11-9, 11-8, 11-8
Tatu Knuutila bt Jesper Skarman 11-3, 11-1, 11-4
Emilia Soini lost to Jennie Lindstrom w/o
17th
place: POLAND; 18th NORWAY
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