The top young squash players in the country are converging on Richmond this weekend.
Sport Central and the River Club are hosting the Canadian Junior Squash Championships - marking the first time the event has taken place in the Metro Vancouver area in recent memory.
The tournament features four age groups - U13, U15, U17 and U19 - with the championship matches slated for Sunday afternoon at Sport Central (2611 Viscount Way). The event is free to the public and the City of Richmond have provided bleachers adjacent to the main courts.
The event has been a year in the making, under Sport Central squash pro Joey Forster and Shakiru Matti who runs a junior academy out of the facility.
"Rarely is this (tournament) held here," explained Matti. "We came up with the idea after attending last year's nationals and we were successful with our bid. One of the things (Squash Canada) took into consideration is the recent success of our players, the proximity to the airport and the support we have received from the City of Richmond.
"We want to use this opportunity to bring people into the building who may know little about squash so they can learn what this game is all about."
For the past five years, Matti's athletes have come away with medals from the Junior Nationals and he's hoping home court advantage will help produce a breakthrough gold medal result. Leading his group of athletes are the Tosh sisters - Alex and Andrea. Alex is a strong candidate to make the junior national team and represent Canada at the World Junior Championships in July in Poland.
With the tournament serving as a mandatory qualifier for national team selection, all the top ranked eastern-based juniors have made their way to the West Coast.
"We are actually pleasantly surprised to see just how much interest there was," continued Matti. "All the top players are here and every draw has eastern representation."
The semi-finals are slated to get underway at 12: 30 p.m. on Saturday afternoons. The finals take place at the same time Sunday.
