White Bids For Hometown Success In Defence of World Doubles Title

After winning the Men's title last December in India, Australia's Cameron White is looking forward to defending the crown in his home town of Melbourne when the WSF World Doubles Championships take place in the Victorian capital next January.

Teams from eleven countries will compete in the 3rd World Doubles Championships at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre from 9-13 January. The championships, backed by the Commonwealth Games Federation, are a preparation event for the 2006 Commonwealth Games - which will also be staged in the sporting capital of Australia in March.

Cameron White, who won the Men's Doubles gold medal in Chennai with Byron Davis, will be partnered by fellow Melburnian Paul Price in January. The hosts will be represented by three pairs in each of the three competitions - the Men's, Women's and Mixed Doubles.

Malaysia's world No3 Nicol David, who won the Mixed Doubles silver medal in the 2002 Commonwealth Games in England, will again partner Ong Beng Hee in a bid to win world championships gold for the first time in Melbourne.

Indian pair Ritwik Bhattacharya and Saurav Ghosal, runners-up in the Men's event in Chennai, will be hoping to go one better in January.

"Squash Australia is very pleased with the preparations for the 3rd World Doubles," said Chief Executive Officer Norman Fry. "The event will provide an opportunity for the public to view some of the world's best squash athletes, men and women, playing on some of the most modern courts in the world.

"The eleven nations that will be participating in the Championship are all sending their top available athletes who will produce the best Doubles competition seen for many years at this elite level. This will be a great occasion for World Squash as the event will be preceded by the Australian Open and then followed a couple of months later by the Commonwealth Games Squash.

"Squash Australia and the State of Victoria are looking forward in anticipation to conducting this event in January 2006," Fry concluded.