Squash team wraps Pan Am Games with gold, leaves TO2015 with six medals
Canada’s squash athletes won two more medals on Friday, with gold in the men’s team event and silver for the women.
The squash team events consist of three matches, where each is a best-of-five. A country must win two out of the three matches to get the win.
Andrew Schnell hits a shot against Mexican Eric Galvez. (Photo: Winston Chow)
The men’s team of Shawn Delierre with brothers Andrew Schnell and Graeme Schnell defeated the Mexican team to claim gold. Andrew got it started, defeating Eric Galvez 11-9, 11-7, 11-8. Delierre had a tougher battle against Cesar Salazar, winning the match 7-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-7 to secure gold.
The women’s team played earlier in the day, losing to the United States in the gold medal match. Hollie Naughton lost the first set 4-11, 10-12, 8-11 to Olivia Blatchford. Then Sam Cornett was unable to overcome Amanda Sobhy, losing 3-11, 2-11, 8-11. Nikole Todd won the first game of the third match 11-9 before Natalie Grainger retired from the contest.
From left to right: Samantha Cornett, Hollie Naughton, Nikole Todd. (Photo: Winston Chow)
Team veteran Cornett described the experience saying “we did amazing, I wouldn’t have expected any less and we were hoping for more. The girls (Naughton and Todd) are new to this particular experience but they are no strangers to squash so we knew we had it in us.
As terrible as it is to lose, I don’t think myself or Holly are happy with the way we played. All credit to the two other girls; they’re fantastic players. I know we wish we could have done better and we will be hungry for a lot more.”
Sam Cornett reaches for a shot against American Amanda Sobhy. (Photo: Winston Chow)
The two medals from Friday bring Canada’s medal total in squash to six. Earlier in the week, Canada took silver in both the men’s doubles (Schnell/Schnell) and women’s doubles (Cornett/Todd). They also won bronze medals in men’s singles (Delierre) and in women’s singles (Cornett).
