At the tender age of 15, Egyptian squash squad, Habiba Mohamed, has won her first world's junior open title in the 20th edition of the WSF (World Squash Federation) Women's World Junior Individual Championship after beating Egyptian Nouran Gohar 6-11, 11-2, 11-7 and 11-6 in 44 minutes in the final match. “This is the second time for me to compete in this championship. Last year, I took third,” Mohamed said. The event was held from 10 to 15 August at Wanderers Sports Club in Windhoek, Namibia. Participating countries were Egypt, England, Belgium, Colombia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Malaysia, Namibia, Nigeria, Papua New GuineaSouth Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, USA, and Zimbabwe. In the semi finals, Mohamed defeated Egyptian squad Nour El-Sherbini 8-11, 5-11, 12-10, 11-8 and 13-11 in 94 minutes. “It was the most difficult match in the whole championship. I didn't expect to win over El-Sherbini,” Mohamed said. Egyptian Nouran Gohar beat her teammate Mariam Metwalli 9-11, 11-4, 11-6 and 11-0. In the quarterfinals, Mohamed defeated Egyptian player Salma Ibrahim 12-10, 11-3 and 11-5 in 38 minutes. El-Sherbini beat England's Lily Taylor 11-2, 11-3 and 11-3 in 18 minutes. “All the matches starting from the quarterfinals were difficult because I was playing against my fellow Egyptians,” added Mohamed. In the third round, Mohamed beat Belgium's Tinne Gills 11-0, 11-7 and 11-2. In the second round, Mohamed won over Papua New Guinea's Lynette Vai 11-4, 11-3 and 11-4. Mohamed was out in the first round. On September 4th, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi honorued young Egyptian athletes for their outstanding performance at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, along with the world squash champions, amongst whom was Habiba Mohamed. El-Sisi awarded Mohamed by giving her the Egyptian National Legion of Honour (first class rank). Mohamed presented the president with a Holy Quran book as a gift. Mohamed told Al-Ahram Weekly “I can't believe until now. I was going to meet the President face to face. I was so happy. I was flying with joy. El-Sisi congratulated me on my achievement. I asked the President to take a picture with me and my coach. He promised me to meet him again when I win any other world championships.” Mohamed has practiced squash since 2007 at the Alexandria Sporting Club. She is a grade 10 student at Riada Language School. “After winning the World Junior title, my school gave me a full tuition scholarship to cover all school costs,” she said. Mohamed found no problem organising her time between her education, her exams and her travels abroad to participate in the championships. “Thanks goes to my school director, Maysa Abaza, and the owner of the school, Mohamed Ragab, for their understanding. Sometimes, they postponed my exams when I was traveling abroad,” Mohamed said. “My family always supported me and helped me organise my time between my study and my training.” Her coaches were Amr Mansi, Ahmed Soheib, Mahmoud Saad and fitness coach Dr. Hamed El-Ashker. According to WSA ranking, Mohamed is world no. 32. Career highlights: In 2014, she won the WSA World tour titles in the Paderborn Open in Namibia and the Edinburgh Open in Germany. She also won the British Junior U17 Open title in England. Mohamed competed in the Women's CIMB Malaysian Open and the WSA World Series Gold championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 18 to 23 August, reaching the quarterfinals. She played with such world champions as French world no.10, Amanda Sobhi, England's world no.16, Jenny Duncalf, and Malaysian world no.37, Zulhijjah Binti Azan. Her favourite squash players were Egyptian squad, Raneem El-Welili, and Malaysian World champion, Nicole David.
