Young Iranian male athletes have demonstrated convincing performances at the French Junior Open 2016, and managed to clinch two silver medals in different divisions at the prestigious tournament.
Alireza Shameli fought gallantly at WAM Club in the northern French city of Lille, near the border with Belgium, on Monday, and managed to defeat his opponents to reach the boys’ under-17 final.
He lost to Nick Wall, a representative from England, 2-3 (7-11, 11-7, 11-13, 11-4 and 11-5) in his last game, and took away the silver medal.
Iran’s Sajad Zareian also steamrolled his rivals in the boy’s under-19 competitions, before falling to French Benjamin Aubert 3-1 (13-11, 11-8, 10-12 and 11-7) in the final.
The French Junior Open 2016 began in Lille, France, on February 18 and wrapped up on February 21.
The event attracted dozens of young male and female squash players from different corners of the world, including Belgium, Egypt, England, France, India, Iran, Italy, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Spain, Sweden and Ukraine.
According to the latest rankings released by the Asian Squash Federation, Shameli stood at the top position in the boy’s under-17 category with 1,149.40 points.
Law Yat Long from Hong Kong collected 1,092.20 points, claiming the second spot in Asia. Malaysian and Pakistani athletes Eugene Heng and Kashif Asif gained 972.00 and 900.00 points respectively to land in the third and fourth spots.