MALAYSIA will not have a representative in the World Junior Squash Championships women’s event for the first time since 2010 after the Ebola outbreak in West Africa grounded the country’s three juniors initially entered for the tournament in Windhoek, Namibia.
Because of the health emergency, Andrea Lee, Zoe Foo and S. Sivasangari were joined by fellow national junior Farez Izwan Mukhtar in withdrawing from the championships, which begin tomorrow.
This is despite the fact that the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, at the centre of the epidemic, are close to 5,000km away from Namibia, which has not reported a single Ebola case.
The absence of the four leaves Syafiq Kamal, Ng Eain Yow, Ong Sai Hung and Darren Chan to fly the flag for Malaysia in the men’s junior individual and team events.
However, the Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia (SRAM) is not placing great expectations on the players, leaving Ivan Yuen as the last Malaysian to reach a final in 2009.
World No 1 Nicol David’s 2001 title triumph, following her first win in 1999, is the last Malaysian success in the championships where Ong Beng Hee broke ground by winning the men’s junior crown in 1998.
“The boys have been set a target of reaching the team quarter-finals,” said SRAM honorary secretary and general manager Chris Brodie.
When asked if Malaysians can expect a new world junior champion, Brodie said: “Not this year. We are looking at 2017 when we will host the championships.”
Syafiq, who opens his campaign against Israel’s Nir Cohen, is the only Malaysian seeded in the boys’ draw at joint-ninth and is due to meet top seed Diego Elias of Peru in the fourth round.
Two-time British Junior Open champion Eain Yow, 16, who SRAM is grooming to win the title in 2017, could spring a surprise if he can get to the third round where France’s joint-13th seed Auguste Dussourd awaits.
The women’s junior tournament is without a Malaysian girl for the first time since 2010 when SRAM cited financial constraints for not sending players to Cologne, Germany.