The 2024 WSF World Junior Team Championships also carved out its own piece of history this month by running both the men’s and women’s championships at the exact same time. This iconic championships sponsored by Championships Fiberglss-Goran Haag, was hosted by at the prestigious Houston Squash Club, in Houston, Texas for a gruelling ten days from July 12-23rd. Top juniors representing 39 different countries from around the globe came from far and wide to compete on the world’s greatest stage. The Team events saw representation from 25 countries in the men’s team event alongside 17 countries in the women’s team event.
The Pan American celebrations started with USA’s ¾ CAROLINE FOUTS capturing the bronze in the Women’s Individuals on week one of the competition. USA had not reached the podium since 2010 when superstar Amanda Sobhy won the gold. Captain Fouts continued to shine guiding Team USA to more hardware in the team event.
BRAZIL’S LAURA SILVA, who finished an impressive #35 out of 104 women, demonstrated exceptional fair play throughout the tournament which earned her the esteemed honour of the FEMALE BEST SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD. The award was proudly presented by WSF Vice-President Pablo Serna of Colombia.
#5/6 CANADA’S WOMEN’S TEAM made history defeating #4 Hong Kong in the quarterfinals with the outstanding performances of sisters SPRING MA and OCEAN MA which advanced Canada to their very FIRST semi-finals in 37 years! Canada then faced the reigning World Champions Egypt losing 0-2 to proudly settled for the elusive bronze medal.
#5 COLOMBIA’S MEN’S TEAM made history by reaching their FIRST ever semi-final. Things started poorly for Colombia in the quarter finals as #3 Pakistan grabbed the lead with a hotly-contested 3-2 win over JUAN IRISARRI. Next up JUAN TORRES came from a game down to defeat Hamza Khan to send the tie to the decider. In the crucial 3rd tie, JOSE SANTAMARIA instantly became a South America’s hero by fighting back from a game down to beat Muhammad Ammad in a nail biting 4-11, 14-12, 11-8, 12-10 match which sent Colombia into a frenzy and into to the semi-finals. Six times World Championship #1 Egypt proved why they are the reigning #1 team, as the newly crowned individual World champion Mohamad Zakaria set the stage with a 3-0 victory over Juan Torres. Marwan Abdelsalam quickly followed up with the second win over Jose Santamaria which advanced Egypt into the finals, but handed Team Colombia with their FIRST ever Junior World Team medal, a beautiful bronze.
#2 USA’S WOMEN’S TEAM breezed past #7/8 England into the semi-finals with 3-0 victories by RIYA NAVANI and CAROLINE FOUTS. In the semi-finals, Caroline Fouts gave USA the lead over #3 Malaysia and then 17-year-old SAMANTHA JAFFE completed the job with a convincing 3-0 win putting Team USA in to the final for the FIRST time since 2015. In the final, Egypt’s Amina Orfi, who had just won a record third consecutive individual World title earlier in the tournament, defeated USA#1 and individual bronze medallist Caroline Fouts in straight games. Fayrouz Aboelkheir in equal fine form, breezed past Riya Navani leaving Team USA with the highly respectable silver medal; their fourth second place finish in Championship’s history.
#7 USA’S MEN’S TEAM cruised past #13/16 South Africa to secure a spot in the semi-finals for the FIRST time since 2018, where they faced #4 Republic of Korea. Korea’s Joo Na was lightning fast and unnervingly accurate against RUSTIN WISER in the first tie. ALEXANDER DARTNELL played his heart out in a see-saw battle to try and force the third and deciding tie but Ryu snuck it out in the 5th game 11-8 leaving Team USA with the bronze, matching their best performance of three bronze medal podium finishes.
IT TAKES THE DEDICATION AND TIRELESS COMMITMENT of world class referees to ensure an even playing field is provided for every athlete for every match. Once again Pan America best officials were behind the glass. Special thanks to: Championship Referee Danjel Greco (Mexico), Leo Arozena (Brazil), Karen Anderson (Jamaica), Juan Bas ( USA) . Paul Alexander (USA), Alexia Clonda ( USA), JC Abadia (USA), Nasir Ali (USA ), Rolland Fearn (USA ), Darrin Manley (Canada) & Nat Lovell (USA)
MASSIVE CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR PAN AMERICAN MEDAL WINNERS
WOMEN’S INDIVIDUAL Bronze: Caroline Fouts (USA)
WOMEN’S TEAM EVENT
Silver: TEAM USA (Caroline Fouts, Riya Navani, Samantha Jaffe, Charlotte Pastel)
Bronze: TEAM CANADA (Hermione Cao, Ocean Ma, Sping Ma & Maria Min)
MEN’S TEAM EVENT
Bronze: TEAM COLOMBIA (Juan Torres, Jose Santamaria, Juan Irisarri
Bronze: TEAM USA (Rustin Wiser, Alexander Dartnell, Zane Patel, Rishi Srivastave)
Women’s Individual Result Highlights (out of 104 women)
#3 Caroline Fouts (USA)
#7 Riya Navani (USA)
#13-16-Dixon Hill (USA)
#17- Ocean Ma (CAN)
#19- Charlotte Pastel (USA)
Men’s Individual Result Highlights (out of 148 men)
#10 – Segundo Portables (ARG)
#11-16- Juan Torres (COL)
#13-16- Javier Romo (COL)
#18-Alander Dartnell (USA)
Congratulations and thank you to each and every one of our Pan American athletes. Kudos to Brazil and Guyana who also participated in the Teams Events. Clearly Pan America is rich in high calibre junior high-performance talent and has claimed its rightful spot on the World stage.
ARGENTINA- Paula Rivero & Segundo Portabales
BARBADOS- Joanna Atkins, Eboni Atherley & Dominic Wilson, Luke Wilson
BRAZIL –Alix Borges, Gabi El-Masry, Linley H Grosman, Laura Silva, Luiza Zamorano & Andre Almeida, Lucas Y Carlson, Matheus Frabetti, Caio C Paiva, ucas Pitta, Isaias Silva
CANADA- Hermione Cao, Tsz Ling Alyssa Ho, Joelle Kim, Ocean Ma, Spring Ma, Maria F Min & Samuel Boulanger, Ewan Harris, , Faazil Khan, Jacob Lin, Wasey Maqsood, Yousseef Sarhan
COLOMBIA- Sara Natalia Caicedo Ortiz, Ana María De Aza Mayorga, Maria J Gomez, Luciana Martinez Salazar, Camila Sabogal, Juanita Sarmiento & Juan A Irisarri, Juan Alejandro Martinez Salazar, Thomas Rodriguez Rayo, Ivan David Santamaria, Jose Santamaria, Juan Jose Torres
ECUADOR- Adrian Guijarro, Javier Romo,
GUYANA- Mohryan Baksh, Louis Dasilva Nicholas Verwey
PERU- Luciana Castillo
USA- Caroline M Fouts, Dixon Hill, Alexandra K Jaffe, Samantha K Jaffe, Riya Navani, Charlotte Pastel & Alexander W. Dartnell, Oscar Okonkwo, Zane Patel, Nathan Rosenzweig, Rishi Srivastava, Rustin D Wiser
World Junior Squash Championships provide an unparaled experience for athletes to compete against the worlds’ greatest juniors. This incredible experience is crucial for development and acts a major springboard to a career on the PSA and the pathway to the Olympics.