Chanel Leppan (Northerns) and Zayd Badroodien (Western Province) emerged as the girls’ and boys’ U15 champions respectively in the Growthpoint SA U15 Nationals squash championships after the final round of matches was completed on Saturday.
Leppan arrived as the top seed and justified her ranking, although she had to work hard to achieve her goal against seventh-seeded Aakiefah Taliep after both players went into their final match unbeaten.
The Northerns player produced a solid all-round performance to take a 2-0 lead, but Taliep showed considerable mental resolve to fight her way back into the contest.
She had two game points to force a fifth, but Leppan refused to surrender and eventually sealed the title on her first match point, winning the fourth game 12-10.
Afterwards, the delighted Northerns player said her first order of business would be “to go and enjoy some ice-cream”.
“It feels very good to be the Growthpoint Nationals U15 champion, and this betters my previous high of winning the U13 Bloem Open,” Leppan said.
“I have been training hard for this, so I am happy to have achieved this win.”
The boys’ title was decided on a countout after Badroodien, Rupert Good (WP) and Zander Smit (Boland) all finished on the same number of points, with Badroodien emerging on top.
It was an extremely close contest, with Badroodien losing his final match to Smit, but doing enough to hold onto top place.
The Cape Town player seemed out of sorts in the first two games to trail 2-0, but then showed his ability as he fought back well to level the match. However, Smit regained the initiative to storm home in the decider, but just missed out on the gold medal.
Another WP player, Rupert Good, won his final match against Ponatshego Molefe (Joburg Squash) 3-0, but had to settle for second place overall.
Eastern Province players Keeran Morrison and Janel Hall gave a good account of themselves by ending fifth and sixth respectively.
They both lost their opening games on Thursday to move into the 5-8 playoffs.
Morrison made sure of a strong finish to the championships by winning all three matches in that section, while Hall made sure of sixth place with a good 3-0 win over WP’s Jenna-Leigh Wyllie in her final match on Saturday.