KUALA LUMPUR: It borders on disbelief. Egypt made a clean sweep of all 10 squash titles at the prestigious British Junior Open which ended in Birmingham on Sunday.
Nothing escaped them. And six of the title deciders were all Egyptian affairs.
Ominously, this is not the first time Egypt made a clean of the BJO.
Why are Egypt so strong in squash?
Malaysia chief coach Ajaz Azmat said Egypt has a huge base of players and coaches at every level.
"Cairo and Alexandria are two cities known for squash, and each city has 14 clubs. And each player has their own coach. They have 10 to 12 players at every level in each club, and imagine how many players they have in total in 28 clubs?
"They have thousands of players. And competition among the juniors is so intense that every player is training so hard to represent Egypt.
"The players start training at the age of seven with strong support from their parents.
"I have seen with my own eyes that a seven-year-old is crying on the court due to intense training by the coach. The coach is shouting at the player that he must continue to train and cannot leave the court until he finishes his one hour training.
"The parents who are watching their child, cry, but they don't interfere with the coach's training method. When a player at a young age gets used to tough training, then he becomes immune to the tough training system.
'''The pressure is on every junior to keep improving their game as the competition is so intense to be selected to represent Egypt.
''Even world No. 5 Mostafa Asal is facing pressure as he needs to be among the top two players in the world to make the cut for the 2028 Olympics.
''Squash is the number two sport in Egypt after football, but they get tremendous support from the sponsors because of the players' achievements in winning titles.
''Egypt started the club-based structure more than 20 years ago, and it has been paying dividends for the last few years.
"We (Malaysia) must also start the club structure like the Egyptians to have a better junior-level development programme and to produce more quality players," said Ajaz.
Harleein Tan was the only Malaysian player to reach the BJO semi-finals in the girls' Under-15. The second seed was upset by joint fifth seed Rama El Naggar of Egypt 7-11, 11-7, 4-11, 7-11.
