18:55 29.03.2016

Ukraine ready for European Squash Team Championships

2 min read
Ukraine ready for European Squash Team Championships

The men's and women's national squash teams hope to play well at the upcoming European Team Championships.

The individual squash championship of Ukraine held on March 25-27 was used to select sportsmen and sportswomen to compete in the upcoming team competition in Europe.

National championships determine who will be on national teams participating in the European Team Championship. The women's championship will be held in Bucharest on April 20-23, the men's championship in Warsaw on May 4-7.

The top Ukrainian squash seed, 2016 Ukrainian champion Denys Podvorny, said the men's team is likely to make it out of their group to the second round at the European Championship.

"Wales and Israel will play with us in the group. It will be difficult, but we have a chance to make it to the next round. Members of our team are fit. We are ambitious and will try to please ourselves and the fans," he said.

According to the top Ukrainian women's squash seed, Nadiya Usenko, Ukraine's women's national team is one of the youngest in Europe. She said its objective is to move to a higher division and to get experience playing with other European teams.

"There are both strong contenders in our division such as Scotland, Finland, Italy and average European teams, such as the squads from Belarus, Romania, Israel, Gibraltar, Latvia, and Luxembourg. It won't be easy to play with all of them. Much will be determined by the squad we draw to play. We will study our competitors in the group a little bit later," she said.

The men's and women's national squash teams of Ukraine in 2015 placed 18th at the European Team Championships.

Squash is a sport with a ball and a racket in a closed room. The game is played with special rackets on a court walled from all four sides. Now there are more than 30 million squash players in more than 180 countries worldwide. Squash is one of the main contenders for inclusion in the Olympic Games program.

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