While Helen Tang won the Women’s Asian Junior U19 title to end a 13-year wait for Hong Kong success, it was 14-year-old Yin Ziyuan of China’s home soil success that suggests Asia could produce the next young star of the game.
Aryaveer Dewan also became only the fourth Indian to clinch the boys’ U19 crown in the blue riband event.
The two garlanded titles formed the conclusion to the 33rd Asian Junior Individual Championships after five days of competition in Panzhihua, Sichuan, China. The event attracted approximately 250 players representing 16 member nations.
Yin’s home success in the U15 category is the one that perhaps stands out the most.
She was 13 last year when she played her role model hero Satomi Watanabe at the World Games.
At the weekend she defeated Pakistan’s Mahnoor Ali 3-0, becoming the first player from the Chinese mainland to claim the GU15 crown at the tournament. She also won the U13 title last time out.
Yin first played squash when she was eight where her parents run a squash club in east China’s Shanghai Municipality.
They hired foreign coaches and she said that she has been practicing nearly every day for five years.
With Ziyuan moving up age category, Kareena Sashikumar won gold for Singapore in the U13 girls’ final, the first Singaporean to do so in the age group competition.
“Three more made the last eight – Kaelen Low, Naisha and Rehaan Singh – big milestones!” said Singapore Squash general manage Alex Wan.
“Well done to the entire team – we went with a smaller team and it paid off well. We saw much more focus and determination, everyone was there for each other.”
Malaysia, usually a very strong contender for multiple gold medals, returned just one this year, underlining the emergence of other Asian nations to the squash scene.
“It is a signal that there is something wrong with our development programme, which has not produced the desired results,” sports analyst Datuk Dr Pekan Ramli told Malaysia’s New Straits Times.
“If our players cannot win titles at Asian junior level, how are we going to produce world class players?
“With squash in the Olympics, more countries are taking the sport more seriously. Many are investing more in squash and look at China. They have pumped in a lot of money to build so many courts and have a massive development programme.”
RESULTS
Boys Under 19
Champion – Aryaveer Dewan (IND)
1st Runner-up – Jonghyeok Lee (KOR)
2nd Runners-up – Nickhileswar Moganasundharam (MAS) / Mohammed Alnasfan (KSA)
Girls Under 19
Champion – Helen Tang (HKG)
1st Runner-up – Whitney Isabelle Wilson (MAS)
2nd Runners-up – Cheung Tsz Ching (HKG) / Kwong Ena (HKG)
Boys Under 17
Champion – Nauman Khan (PAK)
1st Runner-up – Shiven Agarwal (IND)
2nd Runners-up – Lokesh Subramani (IND) / Muhammad Umair Arif (PAK)
Girls Under 17
Champion – Harleein Tan (MAS)
1st Runner-up – Anika Dubey (IND)
2nd Runners-up – Lo Pui Yin Chloe (HKG) / Jinoreeka Ning Manivannan (MAS)
Boys Under 15
Champion – Ahmad Rayyan Khalil (PAK)
1st Runner-up – Vidhurran Ruthiran (MAS)
2nd Runners-up – Julius Tan Li Hao (MAS) / Muhammad Sohail Adnan (PAK)
Girls Under 15
Champion – Yin Ziyuan (CHN)
1st Runner-up – Mahnoor Ali (PAK)
2nd Runners-up – Makaela Lin Cassidy (HKG) / Tang Ching Sum (HKG)
Boys Under 13
Champion – Leung Ngo San (HKG)
1st Runner-up – Amarya Bajaj (IND)
2nd Runners-up – Abhyuday Arora (IND) / Muhammad Sharhan Bin Mohd Saiful (MAS)
Girls Under 13
Champion – Kareena Sashikumar (SGP)
1st Runner-up – Rio Yoshino (JPN)
2nd Runners-up – Divyanshi Jain (IND) / Shanaya Parasrampuria (IND)