23 Jan 2017
Prague, 23 January 2017. From January 20 to 22 the squash team of Aspire Academy competed in the "Czech Junior Open". In his first ever competition in Europe, foundation year student Mohamed Ouda secured the second place in the U13 category. The unseeded Ouda took out three seeded players to reach the final, where he was eventually beaten by the #1 seed and European #2 ranked player Jakub Gogol 12/10, 11/9, 11/4. Reaching the final of this "European Super Series" event was a great achievement for Ouda, who showed an execellent effort and a very professional attitude throughout the event.
Also, his fellow Aspire Academy student-athletes showed that they were in good shape. Waleed Zaman finished in 4th place of the U15 category after reaching the semi-final stage. This was also a first for Waleed to finish in the top 4 of an event this size and should help elevate his European U15 ranking above his current highest of #17. Hamad Al-Amri played well to win 4 of his 6 matches, reaching the last 16 of a very strong U17 event. Hamad eventually finished in 10th position in a draw which consisted of 54 players.
Rashid Al-Harib, Mohammed Alyafei and Ibrahim Al-Darwish all finished outside the top 32 placings of their respective age groups. All boys benefited greatly however from playing multiple matches against high level international competition.
Following a rest day the group will then move on to a training camp where they will practice with a number of the Czech junior team for the rest of the week.
Full draws and results for the event can be found on the tournament website link: https://esf.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/tournament.aspx?id=80227044-A9A0-4ED2-BAE7-1F4252E15F6E