World Junior Champions
head for Sheffield
There may have been some discussion on the forum about the relative merits
of what we billed as the "Big Four" junior tournaments - Canadian,
US, Scottish, British - which see 2005 out and 2006 in, but there can be
no doubt that the fourth in the sequence, the British Junior Open, is the
biggest of them all.
 A
record 475 competitors (entries had to be restricted) from 31 countries
are headed by Egypt's reigning world junior champions Ramy Ashour
and Raneem El Weleily.
Ashour was a surprise winner of the
2004 World Juniors in Islamabad, but since then has gone from strength to
strength, winning the first PSA event he entered, reaching the semi-finals
in five of eleven events played, and rising from 301 to 38 in the world in
the process.
 El
Weleily's progress is no less impressive. While some famous names hit the
headlines winning British and World junior titles, Raneem was quietly
amassing British titles - one at under 13, two at under 15, and last year
her second at under 17 leaving her unbeaten in Sheffield for five years.
She captured the World Junior title at
Herentals in July - beating both last year's British U19 finalists along
the way - just after winning her first WISPA tour title, has risen to
number 36 in the world, and has just been voted WISPA's 'Young player of
the year' for the second season in succession (and turns 17 on 1st January
- happy birthday!).
Not surprisingly the Egyptian duo start as strong favourites for the U19
titles.
Ramy's main threats are Pakistan's Asian Junior Champion Aamir Atlas
Khan - the nephew of Jansher who Ramy beat in that world junior final
- home hope Chris Simpson and Farhan Mehboob, who was an
ever-present for Pakistan in the World Team Championships this month. And
with last year's U19 finalist Tarek Momen and U17 champion Omar
Abo Zid in the 5/8 seeds it really should be a fantastic competition
for the Drysdale Cup.
Raneem has two fellow Egyptians, Lina El Tannir and Nihal Yehia,
seeded just below her, and a strong European challenge from Rachel
Willmott, Fiona Moverley, Deon Saffery (all England),
Soraya Renai (France) and Pamela Hathaway (Germany).
To give you an idea of just how strong this field is, in the 9/16 seeds we
have Canada's Neha Kumar who comes to Sheffield having won the
Canadian, US and Scottish championships!
U17, U15, U13
Egypt and Pakistan, who contested all four of last year's boys finals
(Pakistan winning three) provide six of the eight U17 seeds, seven in the
U15s and six in the U13s, so the odds on another set of titles for one or
the other nation look good.
In the Girls U17 event France's Camille Serme is top seed, the only
non-Egyptian to head the rankings, and a good mix of nationalities -
including Canada's other hat-trick hero Laura Gemmell - promises
some great competition.
It all gets under way on Monday 2nd, with the new champions crowned on
Friday 6th. We'll be there of course, and if you can't make it yourself
we'll do our best to bring you the results, the action and the flavour of
the world's biggest and best junior tournament ...
Steve Cubbins
Camille Serme and Soraya Renaii ... flying the French flag |
Ramy Ashour
Raneem El Weleily
Aamir Atlas Khan
Farhan Mehboob and Omar Zid
Heba Alaa Ahmed - U15 defending champ & top seed
|
