01 Jun Spanish Junior Open Experience for Squash Juniors
Kijan Sultana and Luigi Buhagiar both performed well in the Spanish Junior Open that was held in Santiago de Compostela over the weekend. The Maltese junior squash players were competing in the Under 15 event.
It was Kijan Sultana’s first international tournament in this age group, having reached a top 4 European Under 13 ranking over the past two years. Sultana competed well with the top players in this tournament. He won his matches against local player Aldan Souto Costa and Lazlo Godde (France) and lost only to tournament finalist Adrian Gracia (Spain), to finish in 5th position.
For Luigi Buhagiar this was the first international tournament experience. He lost his first two matches against one of the tournament top seeds Alvaro Martin Sanchez (Spain) and to Alfonso Besada Perez (Spain). Buhagiar then managed to register a great win against Sergio Vazquez Sanchez (Spain) and lost closely to Onni Niskala (Finland) to finish in 14th position.
Bradley Hindle, who coaches Kijan and Luigi, was very pleased with the juniors’ performance. “Kijan’s development continues at a great pace. He is doing so well training at the National Sport School during the day and the continuing to practise the sport that he loves after school. Luigi is also coming along nicely and he did well to win his first match in his first international tournament.”
The Malta Squash junior squash programme is supported by the Malta Olympic Committee and by Sports Malta.