The knockout stages of the World Women's Squash Championship in Cairo begins today, reports Ghada Abdel-Kader The one-week tournament, being held under the auspices of Suzanne Mubarak, will end Saturday at the Cairo Stadium squash complex. President of the Egyptian Squash Federations (ESF) Assem Khalifa said it was the first time Egypt hosts this championship for women teams. "In 2003, Egypt hosted 10th World Junior Women's Squash Championships and won first, second and third places. We are a newly elected board in the federation and discovered that we have a world championship after one month. We divided ourselves into groups. While we were working we put Egypt's reputation at the top. We tried to do our best to make this championship come out in an appropriate manner." Champions of the 2006 championships in Canada and England have reached the final on 12 occasions since the inaugural biennial event in 1979, with victory on six occasions. Hosts Egypt, who celebrated a best-ever second place finish in 2006, are seeded to meet England again in the final. Egypt will be led by Omneya Abdel-Kawi, the 23-year-old world No 7 who is already a 'veteran' of five championships since 1998. New Zealand are seeded to finish in third place, two places higher than their outcome in the previous championships, while The Netherlands are expected to repeat their fourth place finish in 2006. But Malaysia, led by world number one Nicol David and bronze medal winners in Canada for the first time, are seeded five, and will have to overcome Holland in the Pool D qualifying competition in order to avoid the top two seeds in the quarter-finals. The 19 participating teams were divided into four groups. Pool A: England, France, Hong Kong, Austria and Spain. Pool B: Egypt, Australia, Canada, Japan and Switzerland. Pool C: New Zealand, Ireland, US, Italy and China. Pool D: Malaysia, Netherlands, Germany and South Africa. Khalifa added, "The Egyptian women's team is good, comprising Omneya, 16th seed Engi Kheirallah, 23rd seed Raneem El-Weleili and Heba El-Torki They are always ready to travel abroad to participate in the WISPA (Women's International Squash Players Association) championships." "Egypt is seeded second in the championship," added Hamouda. "The World Squash Federation is looking to get squash into the Olympics in 2016. Squash is one of seven sports short-listed by the IOC for consideration for the 2016 Olympic Games. Members from the International Olympic Committee will attend the championship to see the competition, the speed, the play and organisation. "In October 2009, the IOC will select two sports to join the Olympics programme for 2016. We hope squash will be one of them," said Hani Hamouda, an ESF member. "In the near future, the federation is planning to host a WISPA championship to save some money and improve our world ranking," added Khalifa. Technical director of the Egyptian women's team Mohamed Medhat told Al-Ahram Weekly, "We started preparation for this championship over two months ago. We started training in Arabella courts in Fifth Avenue in New Cairo City. The preparation period was long enough .It was to have been at least six month but we haven't faced any problems in this championship except Abdel-Kawi." In the Women's Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open (17-23 November), in the quarter-final match between Abdel-Kawi and David. Abdel-Kawi strained a muscle and withdrew. She's currently undergoing treatment with fitness coach Ahmed Faragallah and doctor Alaa Shaker." "I played today and didn't feel anything," Abdel-Kawi said. "My self-confidence isn't too good but in the coming matches I will become much better. I and my teammate El-Weleili played in the World Junior Women's Squash Championship in 2003. "It is a good opportunity to play a world championship in our country," Abdel-Kawi said. "It is strong championship and we need backing and support from our families, coaches and fans. It is going to be good motivation for us." Medhat said squash is still relatively unknown in Egypt. "It has not received enough attention from the media although we have world champions Amr Shabana, Karim Darwish and Rami Ashour. And it's still not an Olympic game."
