Egypt's junior women squad came back home as champions of both the individual and team events in the Junior Women's Team Squash Championship in Hong Kong reports Nashwa Abdel-Tawab Favourites Egypt cruised to victory last Saturday in the final of the Hoe Hin White Flower Ointment World Junior Women's Team Squash Championship in Hong Kong, beating fifth seeds Malaysia 2/0 to win the biennial World Squash Federation world title for the third time since 1999 and join Raneem El-Weleili's second singles title in celebration. Denied by Hong Kong in the last final two years ago in Belgium, Egypt was in confident form throughout the 2007 tournament and looked unlikely to make the same mistake twice. Heba El-Torki, the 16-year-old Egyptian No 2 from Alexandria, put her side ahead after dispatching Malaysia's Low Wee Nee 9-1, 9-1, 9-3 in just 17 minutes. The climax of the match-up saw the new record-equaling two-times world junior individual champion Raneem El-Weleili, also from Alexandria, take on Low Wee Wern, the Malaysian No1. Wee Wern, the older sister of the squad's second string Wee Nee, made the new world champion fight for every point. But after 35 minutes, El-Weleili clinched her 9-0, 9-4, 7-9, 9-6 victory and the entire squad celebrated their magnificent global triumph. Nour Bahgat and Nessrine Ariffine are other team members who shared in the victory. The win marks a sensational achievement for Egypt, which now boasts all four world junior squash titles: the women's team and individual, with El-Weleili, and the men's team and men's individual, won by the current senior world number two Ramy Ashour a year ago in New Zealand. El-Weleili, after winning the World Junior Championship in Belgium in 2005, rated that as her proudest moment. However, squash pundits thought otherwise and spoke of more to come which has materialised in her becoming only the second woman in history -- the first being Malaysia's current world number one Nicol David -- to win the prestigious World Squash Federation title twice. The WISPA membership as a whole voted her Young Player of the Year for both 2004 and 2005. In the bronze medal play-off for third place, third seeds New Zealand came back from a match down to beat hosts and defending champions Hong Kong 2/1. Second seeds England claimed fifth place following a 2/0 win over France -- whose sixth place marks their best ever finish in the event. Australia beat Germany in the play- off for 11th place -- but this marks the three-times former champions' lowest finish in the history of the event since 1985. However, South Korea finished on a major high: seeded 16 in their debut in the tournament, the newcomers fought back from behind to beat the Netherlands, the 12th seeds, 2/1 to claim an impressive 13th place finish. But El-Weleili, the 18-year-old event favourite, had the toughest battle of her campaign -- and conceded her first game of the tournament -- before overcoming France's No 2 seed Camille Serme 9-2, 9-4, 5-9, 9-3 in 41 minutes to repeat her maiden title victory in Belgium two years ago. It was bitter disappointment for Serme, the 18-year-old two-times European Junior Champion from Creteil who had extended the Egyptian to five games in the British Junior Open final in England in January. Already, El-Weleili, who ranked 23 in the WISPA ranking this month, since her debut in August 2006 has been able to benefit from the support of many talented coaches. First there was Ahmed Abdullah, then the late Ahmed Safwat. Latterly, Ahmed Taher, the head coach of the Egyptian Squash Federation. Currently, she is training with Medhat Galal and Mossad Abdel-Wahab. Overall, her progress is monitored by manager Omar El-Borollosi, training at his squash acadmey in Cairo during the weekends, coupled with weekday time with Amir Wagih. Amazingly, El-Weleili first played for Egypt in the World Juniors Championship 2001 in Penang, aged ten. Two years later when the event was played in Cairo she was part of the Egyptian winning squad, and in 2004 represented the senior team that came fourth in the World Teams in Amsterdam. Fittingly, the returning squad was granted a national welcome home party at Cairo International Airport suitable for young heroines.
