Egypt enjoyed a perfect day in Houston as their women’s and men’s teams captured the 2024 WSF World Junior Team Championships, the first in squash history to feature the men’s and women’s events concurrently.
In the women’s final, the top seeds were once again devastating as Amina Orfi and Fayrouz Aboelkheir helped them win a staggering ninth consecutive title with victory over No.2 seeds USA, while in the men’s final Mohamad Zakaria and Marwan Asal took down dark horses Republic of Korea as they won the title for the first time since 2016.
In the evening’s first final at Houston Squash Club, Egypt’s women set the tone with another performance that underlined their complete dominance of the last two decades, having appeared in every final from 2003 onwards and winning all but one of those.
In the first match, Amina Orfi – who earlier this week won a record third consecutive individual title – once again proved to be Egypt’s talisman as she saw off US first string and individual bronze medallist Caroline Fouts 11-3, 11-6, 11-4.
Up next, Fayrouz Aboelkheir – who alongside Orfi was a key part of Egypt’s title win in Melbourne last year – was in equally strong from as she breezed past Riya Navani 11-4, 11-7, 11-5.
Afterwards, Egypt’s coach Omneya Abdel Kawy said: “It feels great to get the titles in consecutive years. It’s a record for them and for me as a coach. We had the goal to do that and thanks to God it was mission accomplished!”
After watching their teammates win the women’s title, Egypt’s men were in similarly strong form against the first team from Republic of Korea ever to reach the final.
Having begun the tournament with an acrimonious pools stage defeat to South Africa that had seen the Egypt side heavily criticised by sections of fans online, today’s performance completed their redemption after wins over No.2 seeds Malaysia, defending champions England and No.5 seeds Colombia inn the knockout stages.
First, individual junior champion Mohamad Zakaria put in a composed performance to see off Joo Young Na in a repeat of the individual final, with Zakaria weathering quick starts from Na in games one and two to win 11-8, 11-9, 11-4.
Then, it was the turn of Marwan Asal, who today celebrated his 16th birthday. Asal started brightly against Kun Kim, looking confident and hitting a number of winners to take the first two games 11-5, 11-4. Kim responded well in game three, winning it 11-7 to test.
Asal’s nerves, but the Egyptian rediscovered his fire in the fourth game, driving on to win 11-6 and hand Egypt their first title since 2018, when his older brother Mostafa was part of the squad that lifted the trophy in Chennai, India.
“I’m over the moon. As a coach, or player, it’s the first time I’ve won the trophy. I’m thankful for everything and every moment that we had. It was a really tough week, in those early stages when lots of people were pointing at us saying ‘we’re not going to make it’ and ‘squash in Egypt has dropped’. But I had a feeling, deep inside, that we were going to make it,” Egypt coach Andrew Shoukry said afterwards.
At the prize giving ceremony, the medallists were joined by winners of the sportsmanship awards, given to athletes who had best exemplified the spirit of squash, with Brazil’s Laura Silva and Republic of Korea’s Joo Young Na winning the individual awards and Japan’s women and South Africa’s men winning the team awards.
Result: WSF World Junior Team Championship Women’s Final
[1] Egypt 2-0 [2] USA
Amina Orfi bt Caroline Fouts 3-0: 11-3, 11-6, 11-4
Fayrouz Aboelkheir bt Riya Navani 3-0: 11-4, 11-7, 11-5
Nadien Elhammamy w/d Samantha Jaffe
Result: WSF World Junior Team Championship Men’s Final
[1] Egypt 2-0 [4] Republic of Korea
Mohamad Zakaria bt Joo Young Na 3-0: 11-8, 11-9, 11-4
Marwan Asal bt Kun Kim 3-1: 11-5, 11-4, 7-11, 11-6
Marwan Abdelsalam w/d Jeong Uk Ryu
Medal Winners – 2024 WSF Women’s World Junior Team Championship:
Bronze: Canada and Malaysia
Silver: USA
Gold: Egypt
Medal Winners – 2024 WSF Men’s World Junior Team Championship:
Bronze: Colombia and USA
Silver: Republic of Korea
Gold: Egypt