20 Apr 2016
Aspire Academy junior squash players acquitted themselves well at The 7 Silver Tournaments organised by England Squash for the country's best junior players. The competition was strongest for junior and the overall performances of Academy entrants show good progress.
The tournament was held on the weekend of April 15/17 and over 200 entrants got through 400 top quality matches and Aspire Academy graduate student Umair Zaman was again Aspire's leading performer at the Ipswich Junior Open finishing 9th in the U19 category.
Playing at a much higher tempo and with improved precision, Umair won his first round match comfortably before narrowly losing out to the 3/4 seed Oliver Harris in a tough 5 set battle. He won all his remaining matches and now boasts an impressive record of 20 wins and only 2 losses in Europe this season.
Grade 10 student Hamad Al Amri played extremely well in the first round of the U17 event, upsetting the seeding by beating 9/16 seed Jack Turvey 3-1. Unfortunately he then struggled to regain this form in his remaining matches, winning only once more to finish in 15th place. Meanwhile Grade 8 student Abdulaziz Al-Ishaq also had an impressive tournament, playing with much improved concentration and discipline all week. Abdulaziz won 4 out of his 5 matches in the U15 category, his only loss coming in the first round against 5/8 seed Joshua Perkins. He finished 17th claiming the U15 Plate trophy in the process.
Rashid Al Harib and Waleed Zaman also participated in the U15 category, finishing 19th and 25th respectively.
| NAME |
CATEGORY |
POSITION |
| UMAIR ZAMAN |
U19 |
9th |
| HAMAD AL-AMRI |
U17 |
15th |
| ABDULAZIZ AL-ISHAQ |
U15 |
17th |
| RASHID AL-HARIB |
U15 |
19th |
| WALEED ZAMAN |
U15 |
25th |