The Welsh team at this event consisted of Joel Makin, Emyr Evans, Owain Taylor, Elliott Morris Devred with the coach Dave Evans. The event consisted of 24 teams from all over the World with all the top professional players competing. As a group we obviously went into the event with the goal of becoming champions but a minimum target of a Top 8 finish in the World as set.
The first match of the event we were up against hosts New Zealand which was an extremely tough challenge especially as they had Paul Coll at number one who had just won the New Zealand PSA Open days before. Wales were up for the challenge and toppled the hosts 2-1 in a fantastic team performance. The good form continued where we beat Korea to make our way to the L16 knockout stage.
In the L16 Wales came up against old enemies Czech Republic who we have had many a battle with over the years at the European Team Championships. Wales proved too strong on the day and went through to the Quarter Final winning 2-0.
In the Quarter Final Wales were playing 3 seeds France which was on the All Glass Court at the Mercury Arena. Although under dogs in this match Wales showed considerable grit and spirit in all the matches and gave the 3 seeds France an almighty fright. Both Joel Makin and Owain Taylor going down in extremely tight 3-2 losses. On a different day these could have easily resulted in wins for our players.
After the tough loss and disappointment the previous night Wales had to bounce back and finish as high as possible in the play off stages. To make matters worse we were without Joel Makin our number 1 in the match against Germany due to an injury picked up against France. The team produced a stunning performance and beat Germany 2-1 with both Emyr Evans and Elliott Morris Devred wining the ties. This was one of the best team performances in my time involved with Squash Wales especially playing the match without our number 1 player.
Wales finished the event in style beating USA 2-1 to finish in a remarkable 5th place at the World Team Championships, We can safely say Wales are certainly up there with the best few teams in the World, having achieved a Bronze medal at the previous Championships backed up with a 5th place finish at this Championships.
A huge thank you to all the team that took part along with everyone that supported us throughout the event.
