30 Jun 2014
The “Portuguese Junior Open” in Porto was the next stop for the squash team of Aspire Academy, where four of our students competed against top players from Spain, Portugal, Egypt, Sweden and the USA between June 27 and 29.
Foundation year student Rashid Al-Harib again showed a strong performance won some close matches in the group stage and reached the final of the U13 event. Although he ultimately lost to Spanish top seed Aaron Gomez, he could be proud to have reached his first European junior final.
While Hamad Al-Amri took 3rd place in the U15 category after reaching the semi-finals, his teammate Ali Al-Dosari finished the tournament on the 10th position. In the U17 event Abd El-Aziz Omeira was beaten in his second match by eventual winner Omar El Barbary from Egypt and was eventually ranked 5th.
While some of the team have returned home, the remaining members are going to compete in the “Pioneer Junior Cup 2014” that takes place in Cologne, Germany between July 3 and 7.
Students compete at “21st Asian Junior Individual Championships”
On another note, three of our students competed in the U19 boys’ singles at the “21st Asian Junior Individual Championships” in Kish Island, Iran last week. 149 players from 9 countries including Iran, India, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Qatar, Hong Kong, Jordan, Malaysia and Pakistan took part in the tournament and Syed Azlan Amjad finished in 9th position, Umair Zaman took the 13th place, while Abdulwahab Al-Ishaq was knocked out in the opening round.