11 Feb 2015
Doha, 11 February 2015. The Aspire squash group returned from Spain last night following one of their most successful European campaigns at the Spanish Junior Open. The ‘Spanish Junior Open’ in Santiago De Compostella has been a regular event on the European calendar for a number of years and was an excellent test for all of the boys taking part. The highlight of the tournament came from Aspire Graduate Scholarship holder Syed Azlan Amjad who was victorious over his fellow training partner, Aspire year 12 student Umair Zaman, in the final match of the U19 event. Whilst Umair provided stern opposition Azlan was able to raise his game to take the match and the title 3/0. In the U15 category Hamad Al-Amri demonstrated an improved resilience throughout this tournament particularly in his semi-final match coming back from two games to one down to win 3/2. Despite his best efforts in the final the next day he ultimately went down 3/0. Although it was a well contested match Hamad was unable to produce the same structured squash which served him so well the previous day.
Playing in only his second ever European junior tournament, foundation year student Waleed Zaman put in a determined display to reach the final of the U13 event. The way to the final, that he eventually lost,included a hard-fought win over the Spanish number 2 seed in the semi-final. Waleed who still has another six months in this age group is an exciting Aspire prospect and one to look out for in the future.
Elsewhere Abdulwahab Al-Ishaq, Abdelaziz Omeira, Ali Al-Dosari and Rashid Al-Harib all managed top 10 placings in their respective events. For foundation year students Ahmad Al-Meraikhi and Abdulaziz Al-Turki this was their first ever tournament after being selected from the Aspire Academy Gold Camp for talent identification last year. Having only started playing the game in September both have made significant improvements and enjoyed their first exposure to competitive squash. Although they found the standard of play difficult both gave their best efforts and relished the experience. Final finishingpositions for eachstudent are listed below whilst full results can be found at the following link:http://esf.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/tournament.aspx?id=EE6C8DFC-0F64-4EE5-8FE8-4E3BC9B69742 NAME CATEGORY FINAL POSITION Syed Azlan Amjad U19 1st Umair Zaman U19 2nd Hamad Al-Amri U15 2nd Waleed Zaman U13 2nd Abdulwahab Al-Ishaq U19 4th Ali Al-Dosari U15 7th Abdelaziz Omeira U17 8th Rashid Al-Harib U15 10th Ahmad Al-Meraikhi U13 12th Abdulaziz Al-Turki U13 13th Abdulaziz Al-Ishaq U15 14th Mohammed Alyafei U15 16th