Squash

Despite results not going their way over the weekend in the Men’s and Women’s Singles, head coach Marc Forster said there were still positives to take away from the performances of the three.

“Junior (Madako) needs to keep up the standard and keep solid. Youngsters Feanor and Amity will come away with an understanding now of what it takes to be a professional like the players they’re seeing here,” said Forster.

“But all is going well, they’re still in the game.”

The Men’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles will start on Wednesday, August 3. 

Fiji, New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tahiti will contest singles, doubles, mixed doubles and team events for men and women.

PNG, New Caledonia and Fiji are expected to dominate after sharing 21 available medals amongst them at the 2015 Pacific Games in Port Moresby.

New Caledonia’s Nicolas Massenet who won gold in the men’s singles, men’s doubles and men’s team competition at Port Moresby 2015 is returning to defend all of his titles.

The competition was tough in their respective divisions, with both players facing more seasoned professional opponents in the first two rounds main draw matches of the singles.

Being the pinnacle event for the sport of squash, the Games are strongly attended and dominated by top level professional squash athletes. PNG shows promise and has the potential to make it into the top ranks with the right training and support to its top level athletes.

The meet was facilitated by Sports Super Centre - Gold Coast and the Runaway Bay Sport and Leadership Excellence Centre in preparations for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Among the team, 15 coaches and 15 athletes from different sporting federations were part weeklong event that started on October 19^th -25^th.

Papua New Guinea’s squash star Madako Suari Junior was also part of the team representing squash during the meet as he spoke highly of the summit.

The venue was in shock as Webb began the brighter of the two players and took the opening set 11-8.

It prompted a response from Vai which her teammate could not deal with.

She levelled proceedings, winning the second set 11-1 and then claimed the third set. 

That seemed to knock the wind out of Webb’s sails as her performance slowly began to deteriorate which the ruthless Vai took advantage of, winning the fourth set by the same margin as the second to ensure she topped the podium.