2010 WUC Squash Update: Squash Legend to lead Aussie Team

MELBOURNE – Squash legend Sarah Fitz-Gerald AM has been appointed to coach the Australian team in the 7th World University Championship (WUC) Squash, to be held in Melbourne in July.

Ms Fitz-Gerald will lead the five strong Australian contingent against 13 visiting countries including teams from Iraq, Great Britain, Hong Kong and Singapore in the FISU tournament, co-organised by Australian University Sport and Monash University.

Sarah Fitzgerald in actionFormer world junior and world open squash champion, Australian junior female athlete of the year and Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Ms Fitz-Gerald is looking forward to coaching the promising young Australian team. “An event such as WUC is a great stepping stone for young athletes and students. Many players in events gone by have continued on to become world class players” Ms Fitz-Gerald said.

“I feel Australia will do very well but most importantly I expect everyone will try to the best of their ability and take many new positives from the experience” Ms Fitz-Gerald added.

Included in the team is Melody Francis (Deakin University), representing Australia for the second time in a World University Championship Squash event. “Just doing as well as I can and helping the team get the best results is the main goal. The competition last time in Egypt was quite strong, but I feel like I’ve improved since then so I definitely want to get an improved result” Ms Francis said.

Joining Ms Francis are four making their World University Championship debut in this year’s event. Zoe Petrovansky (Queensland University of Technology), Selena Shaikh (Monash University), Luke Sims (Victoria University) and Sam Brown (Edith Cowan University) will all pull on the green and gold next month.

Ms Fitz-Gerald, assistant coach Nathan Turnbull and the team will arrive in Melbourne for training in early July, before the Opening Ceremony on Saturday 10 July.

(Source: Sarah Wordsworth, AUS Marketing and Media Coordinator)

Melody Francis