World junior squash: Preparatory camp begins

A coaching camp in the run up to the world junior squash championship is being held at the ISA courts. The initial tests ended at the trials and soon after followed the limb-loosener in the form of the ISA junior Open 2015. For the top squash juniors in the country now the focus is on the fast approaching World Juniors to be held in Eindhoven in Netherlands from July 26.

Preparations are on at the Academy for a short training camp with the girls slowing trotting in. Harshit Kaur, the current national U-19 champion is already here. ISA U-19 winner Adya Advani from Maharashtra and Nikita Joshi, also from Mumbai have come in. A few local players like Ashita Bhengre and Sunayna Kuruvilla are already there. The boys, however, are not likely to make an appearance for now for they are in training or competition elsewhere. Velavan Senthil kumar, the ISA U-19 winner, in fact, is in the USA.

But, as Maj S. Maniam, the SRFI Consultant Coach, put it, “The rest will undergo a ten-day training programme which I have prepared for them.”

The benefit the juniors will have is that they will get to spar with the elite trainees of the Academy, both boys and girls and this variety would stand them in good stead. Under the watchful eyes of Maj Maniam, his team of coaches will utilize this phase to iron the weak areas and also help beef up the strong points.

At the last championship held in Namibia, India’s boys’ team had finished sixth overall, but more importantly Kush Kumar became the first Indian male player to win a bronze in a world championship.