Favourites Egypt Lift World Junior Crown In New Zealand

In a dramatic climax to the Prince Men's World Junior Team Championship today, favourites Egypt beat second seeds Pakistan 2/1 in the final in Palmerston North, New Zealand to secure the title for only the second time since the inaugural championships in 1980.

The first match between Ramy Ashour, Egypt's record two-times individual world junior champion, and Aamir Atlas Khan went to four games in a tight battle which ended somewhat controversially when Irish referee Jack Allen called Kahn for time-wasting with the score at 9-8, handing the match to Ashour. Khan was suffering from cramp from the point before and requested time to recover, but this was denied by the official.

Defending champions Pakistan clawed back the initiative in the second match, a see-saw battle between two evenly-matched players. The advantage swung back and forth several times until Farhan Mehboob wore down Egyptian Tarek Momen to clinch a 9-6 4-9 9-6 9-5 victory in 65 minutes to level the tie.

In the tense decider, title-holders Pakistan caught sight of the winning post when Yasir Butt overturned a one-game deficit to lead Egypt's Omar Mosaad by two games to one. Mosaad, who beat the Pakistani in straight games en-route to last week's world individual final, recovered the advantage however and, after 70 minutes, thrilled his Egyptian team-mates by winning 9-4, 0-9, 4-9, 9-5, 10-8 to clinch the title.
Egyptian coach Amir Wagih thanked Allah immediately after the final as emotions overflowed following the winning point. Mosaad, accepting the trophy on behalf of the Egypt team, thanked his coach and team-mates for their support and the people of Palmerston North for their welcoming hospitality over the last two weeks.

Malaysia crowned a sensational two weeks in New Zealand by beating four-times champions England in the play-off for third place. Originally seeded seventh in the event, the Malaysian squad were elevated to fourth seeds after their showing in the individual event - then battled to a surprise 2/1 win over the third seeds. With a previous best finish of sixth in 13 appearances in the event since 1982, their bronze medal victory in Palmerston North was a notable triumph for the young team.

Germany, led by European Junior Champion Simon Rosner, beat seventh seeds India 2/0 in the play-off for fifth place to equal their previous best-ever finish in 1988. Ninth seeds and surprise quarter-finalists Hong Kong beat fifth seeds Canada in the play-off for seventh place - to celebrate their first top ten finish in 11 appearances in the event since 1982.

Final:
[1] EGYPT bt [2] PAKISTAN 2-1 (Ramy Ashour bt Aamir Atlas Khan 9-2, 9-7, 5-9, 10-8 (56m); Tarek Momen lost to Farhan Mehboob 6-9, 9-4, 6-9, 5-9 (65m); Omar Mosaad bt Yasir Butt 9-4, 0-9, 4-9, 9-5, 10-8 (70m))

3rd place play-off:
[4] MALAYSIA bt [3] ENGLAND 2-1 (Elvinn Keo lost to Tom Pashley 1-9, 4-9, 3-9 (30m); Ivan Yuen bt Joe Lee 9-5, 9-5, 3-9, 9-4 (62m); Mohd Asyraf Azan bt James Snell 2-9, 9-6, 5-9, 9-4, 9-6 (67m))

5th place play-off:
[6] GERMANY bt [7] INDIA 2-0 (Simon Rosner bt Sandeep Jangra 9-2, 9-0, 9-0 (19m); Norman Junge v Harinder Pal Sandhu (dead rubber - match not played); Florian Silbernagl bt Naresh Kumar 7-9, 1-9, 9-2, 9-4, 10-8 (69m))

7th place play-off:
[9] HONG KONG bt [5] CANADA 2-1 (Max Lee bt Keith Pritchard 7-9, 9-6, 10-9, 9-6 (52m); Leo Au bt David Letourneau 9-1, 9-7, 10-8 (36m); Fung Ji Yang lost to Andrew McDougall 5-9, 3-9, 0-9 (22m))

9th place play-off:
[8] NETHERLANDS bt [12] AUSTRALIA 3-0 (Tom Hoevenaars bt Zac Alexander 10-8, 9-3, 9-4 (42m); Bastiaan Meulenbelt bt Matt Reece 9-5, 9-6, 9-7 (37m); Sander Kock bt Rex Hedrick 5-9, 9-6, 10-8, 9-0 (54m))

11th place play-off:
[10] SOUTH AFRICA bt [11] SWITZERLAND 2-1 (Richard Colburn lost to Nicolas Mueller 10-8, 1-9, 3-9, 0-9 (34m); Jason Cole Niven bt Benjamin Fischer 9-3, 9-2, 9-3 (40m); Rudi Willemse bt Livio Catenazzi 9-2, 4-9, 9-4, 3-9, 9-3 (64m))

13th place play-off:
[14] USA bt [15] IRELAND 3-0 (Trevor McGuinness bt Rory Byrne 9-0, 9-7, 9-0 (18m); Reed Endresen bt Conor O'Hare 9-6, 9-0, 9-1 (17m); Todd Harrity bt Chris O'Kane 9-2, 9-1, 9-6 (36m))

15th place play-off:
[13] NEW ZEALAND bt [17] JAPAN 2-1 (Evan Williams bt Yuuta Fukui 9-6, 9-4, 9-4 (31m); Josh Thom bt Bumpei Kawano 10-8, 9-2, 7-9, 9-4 (47m); Lui Syder lost to Shinnosuke Tsukue 3-9, 9-10, 5-9 (37m))

17th place play-off:
[16] FINLAND bt [18] ZIMBABWE 2-1 (Pyry Poikolainen bt Deepesh Patel 9-5, 9-3, 9-7 (37m); Petteri Siren lost to Ahmed Hassan 1-9, 3-9, 8-10 (23m); Aatos Mannroos bt Ainsley Gannaway 9-4, 10-8, 9-3 (25m))