Argentina, Uruguay and Chile To Host Ninth WISPA Promotional Tour
1 Mar 2007
The Women's International Squash Players' Association has confirmed details of its ninth annual WISPA Promotional Tour, which will visit Argentina, Uruguay and Chile from 30 May to 10 June.
Leading the latest initiative in WISPA's continuing drive to promote women's squash around the world will be Malaysia's reigning world champion Nicol David, Australia's former world number one Rachael Grinham, and Sarah Fitz-Gerald, the record five-times world champion, also from Australia.
The Tour itinerary will feature exhibitions, clinics, press conferences and meetings with sports bodies in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, before a planned final leg in Santiago. All these programmes have been organised in close co-operation with the countries' National Squash Federations.
WISPA can rightly claim to be 'going to the ends of the earth to promote squash'! In 2006, the WISPA group extended their trips to the Estonian capital of Tallinn and the Norwegian capital Oslo by visiting the most northern squash court in the world - in Longyearbyen, situated on the Norwegian island of Svalbard, which is less than 600 miles from the North Pole!
This year the players travel south from Buenos Aires to be the first top players to play on the globe's most southerly courts - which are sited at Ushuaia in Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America.
As in previous years, press conferences and television coverage will bring squash to the notice of the public - while local squash enthusiasts will be able to watch, and in some cases compete against, the WISPA stars.
"We have been promoting interest in international squash with these annual Promotional Tours for nine years now and each time they have led to enduring relationships," explained WISPA Chief Executive Andrew Shelley. "So we look forward to making new friends and to providing a media boost for the game in three South American countries, courtesy of Rachael, Sarah and Nicol - who are giving so generously of their time."
WISPA's promotional tour concept was launched in 1999 with a visit to the Czech Republic. Successive years featured trips to Jamaica, El Salvador, Peru, Kenya, Thailand, Brunei, Sarawak, Russia, China, Nepal, Jordan, Turkey and, last year, to Estonia and Norway.
