14 European countries will play squash in Poland during the squash teams European Cup
14 European countries will play squash in Poland during the squash teams European Cup Representatives of 14 European countries will meet between 30th September and 2nd October in Warsaw to play in European team squash championships.
The games will be part of the European Nations Challenge Cup (ENCC) tournament. In the 3 day tournament at the Warsaw Kahuna Club courts, 24 three player strong teams, including 16 men’s teams and 8 women’s teams, will play during the ENCC games. National teams will represent the following countries: Poland, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Serbia, Russia, Ukraine, Malta, Cyprus, Isle of Man, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Monaco and Gibraltar.
ENCC cycle tournaments are team championships with the participation of countries where squash is played as a discipline of sport. “The 3 days on the courts will be exciting. Previous year’s champions, the representatives of Ukraine, will have to face the challenge of playing such teams as Gibraltar who, in the 2009 finals, bade farewell to gold only after a keen struggle ending with one of the representatives’ injury”, says Sławek Nowisz from Kahuna Club, hosting the European championships this year. “This year we expect a similar, equally good level of matches”, adds Mr. Nowisz.
Poland will be represented by 2 men’s and 2 women’s teams. In the first teams there are representatives of Warsaw: the current Polish champion, Wojtek Nowisz, and the runner-up to championship, Marcin Karwowski, as well as Marcin Kozik from Zabrze and Maciej Maciantowicz from Kraków. The following players are in the second team: Kamil Dominiak and Maciej Sikorski from Warsaw, Łukasz Nitka from Kraków, and Tomasz Abramowski from Poznań. In the lead of Polish women’s team is Dominika Witkowska, the current Polish champion, supported by the runner-up to championship, Anna Jurkun, Anna Sikorska and Magdalena Kamińska. The second team is composed of Magdalena Ryczko, Sylwia Borek, Paulina Krzywicka and Zuzanna Sobierajewicz. Although the representatives of Poland are at the top of the Polish Squash Federation rankings, the competition is going to be tough.
The Ukrainians, last year’s winners of men’s tournament, have confirmed their participation, as well as some strong teams from Russia, Cyprus, and Gibraltar. The Polish women’s team will have to match representatives of Cyprus who won the silver medal last year, and the Estonians, who ended the Pole’s dream about the bronze medal in 2009.
The ENCC Cup is quite a challenge for competitors. On day one and day two, the squads are going to compete in the group phase, and then there will be a day of finals, when the best teams will compete for medals, playing in the cup system. Such an arrangement of matches means that the winners will have to prove they are truly fit. Each meeting consists of three matches, where the players continue until 3 sets are won, and the score in each set is 11 points. The winning squad is the one which has won the most matches
The matches will be played every day between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.. Men’s finals will take place on Saturday at 5 p.m. Women’s teams will play for gold on the same day at 1 p.m. The full timetable of matches is available at the championship website. The Polish national team played well during international ENCC cycle events. It had its first success at the international tournament in 2003, when the men’s team took the third place. Further success came a little later, in 2006 and 2008, when the ladies’ team won silver medals, and in 2007, when the ladies took the third place in the tournament. Last year the men’s team took the 7th, and the ladies’ team took the 4th place.
Media sponsors of the European Nations Challenge Cup 2010 are: Onet.pl, Gazeta Wyborcza, Sport.pl, TVN Warszawa, Mediarun.pl, Antyradio, esquash.pl, squash.com.pl, nasquasha.pl, squashmasters.pl, ligasquasha.pl, squashsite.co.uk.
More information about ENCC 2010, in English, at the championships website or in Polish at online press centre.
Additional information is available from: Mr. Adrian Łaźniewski dotPR
email: adrian.lazniewski@dotpr.pl cell: +48 601 555 986
