England Do The Double In Bordeaux While Poland Make History

England lifted both trophies for the 18th time and Poland made history on finals day at the European U15 & U17 Mixed Team Squash Championships in Bordeaux.

Gabriel Chak was the hero for England's U17 team as he won a nail-biting deciding rubber against France's Theo Baudry 8-11 11-9 13-11 6-11 11-8 in one hour and 16 minutes.

Poland created history by reaching their first ever final at these championships, but they went down 3/0 as England won the European U15 title for the 19th time since its introduction in 2001.

Amir Khaled-Jousselin - who was bidding to become the first player in history to win the 'treble' of U19 Individual and U17 and U19 Mixed Team titles - got France off to a winning start in the U17 final with a 11-3 11-2 11-0 win against Luke McBride.

Harriet Broadbridge then drew England level with a comfortable 11-3 11-6 11-6 victory over Leelou Laporte in what was a re-match of their recent French Junior Open final.

It all came down to Gabriel Chak against Theo Baudry and it proved to be an epic finale. As the match entered a tension-filled fifth game, the Englishman looked physically stronger in established at 6-2 lead, but Baudry battled back to 8-8.

However, two crucial tins have Chack match balls and seized the opportunity first time to disappoint the home crowd at the SquashBad33 Bordeaux Nord club. It marked the 20th final between England and France in the history of both U15 and U17 categories and France are still to achieve a single victory.

Chak commented: "This is right at the top of my achievements so far. It's pretty big for me. Representing England is a real honour and I'm so glad to get over the line."

France coach Yann Perrin said: "We don't any have regrets. Théo gave absolutely everything he had in the deciding match, he was cramping towards the end and kept fighting. Of course it's disappointing to lose a final at home, bur overall we spent four great days here and the team spirit was fantastic."

Switzerland, who had lost to England in Saturday's semi-finals, took the bronze medal courtesy of a 2/1 victory over Spain, with Leandro Vogel winning the decisive third rubber.

England won their 19th gold medal in the U15 competition but Poland, enjoying their best ever performance at these championships, offered stern resistance.

The Poles, who have European no.3 Anna Jakubiec and European no.1 Mateusz Lohmann in their U15 armoury, had stunned hosts France in the semi-finals on Saturday and Jaanshere Khan's match with Lohmann in the opening rubber of the final went the full distance.

Khan won both opening games 11-9 but Lohmann fought back, winning the third by the same scoreline and then the fourth on a tiebreak. Khan settled quickest in the deciding fifth though to take a 56-minute classic 11-9 11-9 9-11 10-12 11-6.

In the second rubber, Phoebe Griffiths leapt to a 9-2 lead in the first game, but Jakubiec moved up several gears at that point. Although Griffiths clung on to take the first 11-9, Jakubiec galloped through the second 11-1. The Englishwoman reasserted control after that, completing a 11-9 1-11 11-4 11-5 victory to seal the title.

England decided to play the dead rubber and Will Burton won it 11-8 13-11, rubber-stamping England's 15th title in the last 16 championships in the U15 category

England coach Adam Fuller reflected: "We felt Jaanshere's win was a pretty crucial one. If he hadn't got over the line, it may have been a very different final.

"It's another double for us, but you never get bored of winning titles. Every year is different and comes with its own challenges, and we are incredibly proud of both teams."

For Poland, under their Dutch coach Sjef van der Heijden, it marked the first time that a new finalist had been seen at these Championships since Israel in 2013. Coming just a week after their senior teams made history with best-ever performances at the European Team Championships in Wroclaw, these are vintage days indeed for Polish squash.

Van der Heijden commented: "We could have done even better! Our no.1 was so close to winning, and I think the girls' match would have been a different story if we'd gone 1/0 up. Having said that, a silver medal is still a fantastic result and it comes after our senior teams did really well at home at the ETC last week.

"Squash is really booming in Poland at the moment. There are hundreds of kids entering tournaments and we are hoping it'll translate into senior in the mid-term future."

Hungary also excelled this week by reaching the U15 semi-finals - their best performance since winning U15 silver in 2010. They missed out on a medal this time as France beat them 3/0 in the third-place play-off.