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Women's World Championships in Penang WOW!

26 Mar 2014 | Hits: 822

I have so much to tell you! My life is so busy at the moment with the WSA season in full swing, pennant grand finals (more to come on Grand finals in my next blog), coaching, promoting Club2Athlete and life in general!

I have just been to the Women’s World Championships in Penang! WOW what a great experience it was. My first healthy world champs since the 2009 event in Amsterdam.

Traveling to Penang was relatively easy considering its only a short 8 hour journey from Australia. I was lucky to have 3 seats to myself over and back so I was able to spread out and have a sleep for a few hours.

I spent the first night in Kuala Lumpur then traveled by bus to Penang with my dear friend Sima Padbod . It was a 6 hour journey but it was very comfy and a great way to see some of the countryside of Malaysia.

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Sima and I stayed at a YWCA guesthouse in Penang. It was a very basic room with just 2 single beds, our own bathroom, toilet and a little bar fridge. It was clean and tidy but the downfall was we had no air conditioning! Not a pleasant experience in a country that has temperatures of 34 degrees and 80% humidity!

I was feeling very relaxed and just so happy to be back playing in a tournament with all the top players in the world again. My preparation before the tournament was great with two hard sessions on the first day to get the body going and flush out all the bad toxins from traveling. I then had one lighter hit on the last two days before game day.

Once game day arrived on the 16th of March I was ready to go. Feeling a little nervous for the first match but so excited at the same time. My adrenalin was pumping with so much excitement to get on court and play in front of a large audience. I was a little shaky and found it hard to relax at first but once I got through the first few rallies I then found my rhythm and won 3-0 against Zoe Foo from Malaysia.

I then drew Nour El Tayeb in the 3rd round of qualifiers. Nour is a great player currently ranked 18 in the world. She has wonderful racket skills, sheer determination and an uncanny ability to dive all around the court retrieving shots that are near to impossible to retrieve. I was mentally prepared to go on court relaxed, composed and give it my all. Despite losing 0-3 I felt I played the best squash I’ve played in a long time. Happy with my performance and excited for my next challenge.

The first day of the main draw was fantastic spectacle. The opening ceremony had over 7,000 people who attended with fire works, live music and fantastic squash to watch. In between matches WSA held a VIP’s, Sponsors presentation/dinner. This is where the WSA announced the 2013 Squash Awards: Sportswomanship Award, Breakthrough Player of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year and Player of the Year. All of the winners were chosen by an independent expert panel made up of journalists, ex players and squash experts, except the tournament of the year, which was voted for by the players. I was so happy and honored to receive the Vicki Cardwell Comeback of the Year Award. It came as a complete surprise but I was so so happy to be recognized and awarded for all my hard work coming back from injury.

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Me Receiving my 2013 Comback Player award from 5 x former world Champion Sarah Fitzgerald

I had a great time catching up with all the players during the event, especially friends I haven’t seen in a few years. I spent the last 3 days in Penang getting on court with as many different girls as possible and it was just so wonderful to have the chance to practice with such a great group of talented squash players.

It was a fantastic tournament with the organizers and Penang Squash putting on such an amazing event. Women’s squash is so exciting at the moment with strong competition and a new World Champion Laura Massaro. Congratulations to Laura on her performance across the entire event! Very proud of her effort!

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