Egypt Seeded To Retain World Junior Crown In India

Egypt, three-time winners of the trophy since 1999, are seeded to retain the Women's World Junior Team Squash Championship title in India next month - according to the interim seedings for the event announced today by the World Squash Federation.

Players from 16 nations will compete in the biennial WSF championship which will take place at the ICL Squash Academy in Chennai from 3-8 August - following the men's and women's individual world junior championships, which get underway on 29 July.

Heba El Torky, the 18-year-old world No42 from Alexandria who is expected to reach the women's individual final, will lead the Egyptian squad - which also includes her younger sister Nouran El Torky, as well as 13-year-old Nour El Sherbini, one of the youngest competitors in the championship.

Malaysia are named as second seeds and are expected to meet Egypt in a repeat of the 2007 final in Hong Kong.

Hosts India are seeded four - but will hope to finish higher than their best-ever fourth finish in the 2003 championship in Cairo.

Seeded third, Canada are expected to record their highest-ever finish in 12 appearances since the inaugural event in 1985.

"Successful players in these world junior championships in Chennai would be expected to be in their prime by 2016 - when Squash hopes to be making its long-awaited debut in the Olympic Games," said WSF President N Ramachandran.

The final seedings, and positions in the pools, will be decided on semi-finals day of the individual women's championship.

Interim Team Seeding:

[1] Egypt; [2] Malaysia; [3] Canada; [4] India; [5] Hong Kong; [6] USA; [7] England; [8] France; [9] New Zealand; [10] Australia; [11] Netherlands; [12] Germany; [13] South Africa; [14] Denmark; [15] Spain; [16] Sweden