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The Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games Organizing Committee (BAYOGOC) has confirmed that squash would be included as a showcase sport at the Youth Olympic Games 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina October next year.

"It is exciting, yet encouraging news! After our hard work and persistent lobbying throughtout these years, we are delighted to see squash is moving step by step towards the ultimate goal of Olympic Games inclusion," said Mr David Mui, our President, who has been heavily involved in Squash Olympic Bid since the 2012 Hong Kong Open, a successful inspection event hosted by Hong Kong Squash (where Mr Mui is the Chairman) for the International Olympic Committee's inspectors for the 2020 Olympic bid.

The Games Organising Committee would take the Youth Olympic Games to the next level as an event for all young people to participate. The Committee would introduce the “four-parks concept”, which would allow participants to experience "a fusion of elite sport competition, music, culture and arts festivals, sport initiation, showcasing and educational programmes". And squash has been chosen to be part of this as a showcase sport.

"This fruitful result is definitely a collective work of our squash colleagues. I would like to congratulate WSF and the Olympic Games Commission. The impeccable leadership of all the presidents over the years, specially Jacques Fontaine, the current president, Mr. Ramachandran, Mr. Jahangir Khan and Susie Simcock (past presidents), as well as the hard work of the colleagues at the WSF Olympic Games Commission has made this happen," continued Mr. Mui.

For details of the Youth Olympic Games 2018, please visit the official website.

The first-ever ASF Level 2 Coaching Course hosted by the Japan Squash Association was successfully concluded on 25 June 2017, in Kanagawa in Japan. The course tutored by Miyuki Adachi (Japan), has attracted 8 participants.

"I am very happy to see that there are more member nations hosting the ASF Level 2 Coaching Course. There were one hosted by Macau Squash Association in May, the JSA had its last Sunday, and there will be one to be held in December in Tehran, Iran. This is definitely a good sign for the sport in Asia, especially on the coaching aspect," commented by Tony Choi, the ASF Coaching Director. "I would like to take this opportunity to thank JSA and Miyuki for hosting and conducting such a successful course. I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to Major Maniam, who took his time to be the supervisor of the course."

Photo Caption:

Mr Tony Choi, ASF Coaching Director (3rd from the right on back row), Ms Noriko Kamiya, Secretary General of JSA (far right on back row), Major Maniam, supervisor of the course (2^nd from the right on back row), and Ms Miyuki Adachi, the course tutor (far left in front row), with the participants of the ASF Level 2 Coaching Course in Kanagawa, Japan in June.

The first-ever ASF Level 2 Coaching Course hosted by the Macau Squash Association was held over three weekends in April and May. Tutored by Tony Choi, the ASF Coaching Director and assisted by Dick Leung (Hong Kong, China), the course has attracted 7 participants.

Photo Caption:

Mr William Kuan Vai Lam, Chairman of the Macau Squash Association (5^th from the right), Mr Tony Choi (6^th from the right), the tutor and Mr Dick Leung (4^th from the right), the other tutor, with the participants of the ASF Level 2 Coaching Course.

The Presentation Ceremony of the 2016 ASF Awards was held in conjunction with the Prize Presentation Ceremony of the 2017 Asian Individual Chamionships on Sunday, 30 April in Chennai, India.

On behalf of the ASF, Debendranath Sarangi, ASF's Vice President presented the awards to the winners, who attended at the Ceremony.

Photo Captions

Top row (left to right):

• Cyrus Poncha (India) - Coach of the Year
• Lim Chee Ming (Macau, China) - Development Coach of the Year, receives the awards from William Kuan Vai Lam, President of the EASF (left) and Tony Choi, ASF Coaching Director (right)
• Masoud Ghareh Ziaeddini (Iran) - Coaches Certificate of Recognition

Middle row (left to right):

• Hong Kong Women's World Team 2016 - Outstanding Women's Team of the Year
• Max Lee (Hong Kong, China) - Dato Alex Lee Award
• Annie Au (Hong Kong, China) - Dato Alex Lee Award

Bottom row (left to right):

• Ng Eain Yow (Malaysia) - Hassan Musa Award
• Sivasangari Subramaniam (Malaysia) - Hassan Musa Award
• Hong Kong Men's Asian Team 2016 - The Most Improved Team of the Year

The Jio 19th Asian Squash Championships were concluded successfully yesterday at the Express Avenue Mall in Chennai, India. In front of the audience at the mall as well as their home fans watching the online live streaming provided by the organiser, Max Lee of Hong Kong and Joshna Chinappa of India claimed their first-ever Asian Men’s and Women’s Championships Titles respectively.

“Congratulations to Max and Joshna, our new Asian Champions, as well as other medal winners. I would also like to take this opportunity to show my sincere gratitude to The Squash Rackets Federation of India, Mr. Debendranath Sarangi, Chairman of the Organising Committee, his organising team and all the officials, who made such an incredible and wonderful event,” said our President, Mr. David Mui, MH JP.

For details of the match reports of the Jio 19th Asian Squahs Championships and the draws, please click here.

[Photo credit to Squashsite]

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has confirmed that squash will remain in the sports programme for the 18^th Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, after the persistent lobbying and hard work of our President, Mr David Mui.

"When we knew that the OCA would discuss with the Indonesia Asian Games Organising Committee (INASGOC) to reduce the sports programme of the 18^th Asian Games and squash was considered to be dropped, we immediately act accordingly to seek support and assistance from relevant OCA's officials and INASGOC. I insisted that with the successful development of squash in the region these years, our beloved sport has to be one of the competition sports in the Asian Games," said Mr. Mui.

Mr. Mui continued, "I would like to specially thank our Patron, Mr. N. Ramachandran, who has provided tremendous assistance and influence on the issue. My sincere appreciation would also go to the Persatuan Squash Indonesia and all those who have been working hard to strive for the inclusion of squash into the 2018 Asian Games."

There will be four events: Men’s and Women’s, Team and Individual, for the sport. Details of the announcement of the OCA, please refer to the OCA’s website.

In a week, the Jio 19th Asian Squash Championships 2017 will debut in Chennai, India. Top squash players from all over the region will perform their superb skills in front of the fans, from the preliminary rounds at the Indian Squash Academy and on the Glass Court at the Express Avenue Central Atrium, with the quarter-finals onward to take place at the Express Avenue Central Atrium.

The Championships, which will be held from 26 to 30 April, have attracted 28 women’s players from 8 regions include Hong Kong China, India, Iran, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore to participate in the Women’s event. On the other hand, Jordan, Nepal, Pakistan and Qatar together with the above regions sent total 42 men’s players to participate in the Men’s Event.

Max Lee and Annie Au from Hong Kong, China are the top seeds for the Championships while the host country’s Saurav Ghosal and Joshua Chinappa take the second positions. For details and the full draws of the Championships, please visit the event website.

The 8th edition of the ASF's bi-annual e-newsletter, Squash Pulse, which covers what has happened since October 2016, is released.

Do Relax and enjoy the reading.

SQUASH PULSE #8

ASF Performance Awards 2016

Dato Alex Lee Award – Outstanding Performance of the Year (Senior) 

• Men: Max Lee (Hong Kong, China)
• Women: Annie Au (Hong Kong, China)

Hassan Musa Award – Outstanding Performance of the Year (Junior)

• Boy: Ng Eain Yow (Malaysia)
• Girl: Sivasangari Subramaniam (Malaysia)

ASF Award – Outstanding Team of the Year

• Men's Team:  Pakistan Men's Team 2016
• Women's Team: Hong Kong Women's World Team 2016

ASF Development Award – The Most Improved Team of the Year

• Hong Kong Men's Asian Team 2016

ASF Coaches Awards 2016

Coach of the Year

• Cyrus Poncha (India)

Junior Coach of the Year

• Ong Beng Hee (Malaysia)

Development Coach of the Year

• Lim Chee Ming (Macau, China)

Coaches Certificate of Recognition

• Wong Wai Chung (China)
• Mosoud Ghareh Ziaeddini (Iran)

Congratulations to all award winners. Besides, we would also like to thank the paricipating member nations as well as the selection panel.

The recruitment of Head Squash Coach in the Hong Kong Sports Institute is now open for application. For details, please clicks the following website: -

http://www.hksi.org.hk/opportunities/job-openings/head-squash-coach/

The Bright Smart Securities 18^th Asian Junior Team Championships came to a successful conclusion today after two exciting boys’ and girls’ finals at the Hong Kong Squash Centre.

Top seed India defeated the defending Champion Malaysia 2-0 to claim the Asian Junior Men’s Team title. It is the second time for the Indian boys to win this title, the earlier was in 2011 in Sri Lanka. Hong Kong China and Pakistan both finished bronze.

For the Asian Junior Women’s Team event, defending Champion Malaysia beat Hong Kong China 2-0 in the final to retain its title, while Japan and Singapore claimed the co-third.

ASF would like to thank Hong Kong Squash for hosting the event, as well as the officials, referees and helpers who made a successful yet memorable event.

Please visit the official site of Hong Kong Squash for the full results.

The Annual General Meeting of the Asian Squash Federation was successfully concluded today in Hong Kong. At the AGM, David Mui, MH JP was re-elected the President of the ASF.

“I deeply appreciate the trust and support the member nations gave me in the last four years. It has been a great pleasure to work with all members for promoting and developing our beloved sport in Asia,” said David.

At the meeting, Won-Kwan Kim and Fayez Abdullah Almutairi were re-elected as the Vice Presidents. Besides, Debendranath Sarangi, who was newly elected, took the remaining Vice Presidency.

“I would like to welcome Mr. Sarangi. I believe his expertise will bring new idea to the Office. The new Management Committee will continue the good work together with all member nations for another four years to pursue the objectives of the ASF,” added David.

The biennial Asian Junior Team Championships commence today at the Hong Kong Squash Centre in Hong Kong, China. The event has attracted 12 countries and regions with almost a hundred promising junior athletes to compete for the Asian Junior Men’s and Women’s Team titles.

Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong China, India, Japan, Korea, Macau China, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka sent both their boys’ and girls’ teams, while Iran, Joran and Pakistan had their boys’ teams to participate in the Championships.

We would like to thank Hong Kong Squash for hosting the Bright Smart Securities 18th Asian Junior Squash Team Championships 2017 and we also wish all the participating teams and officials every success in the Championships.

For detail report of the Championships, please visit the official website of Hong Kong Squash.

We are pleased to confirm the dates of the three major championships in 2017 as follows:

• the 18th Asian Junior Team Championships to be held in Hong Kong from 1 to 5 February;
• the 19th Asian Individual Championships to be held in Chennai, India from 26 to 30 April; and
• the 24th Asian Junior Individual Championships to be held in Amman, Jordan from 15 to 19 August.

Thanks should go to Hong Kong Squash, the Squash Rackets Federation of India and Jordan Squash Federation for hosting the events.

We look forward to the active participation from all member nations.

Congratulations to ​the successful run of the 3rd Asian Master Championships 201​6 held ​in Dalian, China last week. After ​a week of exciting squash among ​over ​70 master players​ in the region to compete for the prestigious Asian Master titles​, we congratulates all the winners for seven age categories as follows: - 

Special thanks to the hos​ting association, Chinese Squash Association​ and its organizer Dalian Squash Association for their great organization and warmest hopsitality. Thanks should also goes to all the officials, referees​ and volunteers​ for their ​hard work in staging this 3rd edition of Asian Master Championships.

We are happy to announce that the 3rd Asian Master Championships is returned and kick off at Dalian China from 13 - 16 Oct, after its last edition completed in 2012 in Pakistan. Kindly click to the Asian Championship page for the updated results!

We are pleased to announce that the 7th issue of our bi-annual e-newsletter, SQUASH PULSE, is released today. Together with coaching and referee activities updates, this issue highlights some outstanding results among our member nations include:

- 18th Asian Team Championships

- 23rd Asian Junior Individual Championships

- 9th World University Squash Championship

- WSF Junior Individual & Team Championships

Let's relax and hope you enjoy reading our latest Squash Pulse under this link ( http://www.asiansquash.org/squash_pulse.php ) 

We welcome and feel free to send us any ideas, comments or suggestion that help us to do better.

Asian power made a clean sweep of all three gold medals, men's singles, women's singles and mixed team at the 9th World University Squash Championships 2016 held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last week.
 
Top seeds crowned the titles in the individual event. Yip Tsz Fung from Hong Kong, China, being the first HK men's player, won the champion title by beating Malaysian men's Ivan Yuen in a straight game while Low Wee Wern from Malaysia managed to down second seed Tong Tsz Wing from Hong Kong, China 3-1 and ended the decade old wait for gold for the hosts in the women individual event. Plus another Hong Kong men's player Wong Chi Him was awarded the men's singles bronze alongside the women's bronze medallist Malaysian Nazihah Hanis, Asian players had totally captured four medals out of six in the single's event. 

In the all-Asian team final, the host Malaysia crowned the mixed team title for the first time by prevailing the top seed Hong Kong, China in a dramatic final in 2-1, deciding by a very close 5-setters of men's second tie. Japan also secured a team bronze medal in Asian ​pocket. 

Cheers for the Asian Power and sincere congratulations to all the winners, coaching teams and the respective MNFs!