India’s Neel Joshi capped his brilliant run at the prestigious British Junior Open Squash Championships by clinching the bronze medal in the Boys U13 category in Sheffield on Wednesday. The 12-year-old, seeded 9/16, beat fellow 9/16 seed Kareem El Torkey of Egypt, 11/8, 11/5, 12/10 to finish third.
This is India’s only medal from the British Junior Open this year. Last year, India had captured another bronze through Kush Kumar in the Boys U19 category.
Besides Kumar, a host of the current top Indian squash stars had won medals from this tournament before. Saurav Ghosal, Mahesh Mangaonkar, Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal have each been a former champion at this Sheffield tournament, usually considered the world’s second most elite junior event after the World Junior Squash Championships.
This is Joshi’s latest achievement after a string of very impressive results throughout 2015. Last year, the Mumbai boy had grabbed U13 titles at the ISA Junior Open, the NSCI Junior Open, the Indian Junior Open and the 72nd CCI Western India Open, besides reigning supreme at the Sub-junior Nationals.
