Ireland upset the seedings at the Men's World Team Squash Championships in Malaysia yesterday by beating Hong Kong 3-0 to win their pool and guarantee themselves a top 16 finish in the tournament.
It was a sweet victory for the Irish who had been upset by the organisers' decision to seed them 19th, despite the fact that they had finished in the top 16 (15th) in the last World Championships in Cairo two years ago.
To regain their place in the top 16 they had to beat Hong Kong, the pool favourites, yesterday and they did so with ease. Derek Ryan, Maurice Collins and Patrick Foster won their matches without dropping a game, maintaining the team's 100 per cent winning record in their pool after earlier victories over Austria and Brazil.
A delighted team manager John McKay, praised Ryan for "playing a real captain's role" in the opening tie against Hong Kong number one, Abdul Faheem Khan. "He restricted Khan, who is a very useful opponent and who was a seed in the World Individual Qualifiers, to only seven points, which was a superb performance. It let them know we were out for blood."
McKay added: "Maurice was next out and he played an untypically patient first set against Jackie Lee. He demoralised him by digging in and coming back from 8-3 down to win the set and then opened up and played an attacking game, running out a comfortable winner. Patrick won the dead rubber against Won Hai Hang to give us a nice finish to the pool."
"The win puts us in the top 16, exacting revenge for the fact that we had been moved down to 19th seeds, despite finishing 15th last time," added McKay, who said his players have now acclimatised to the conditions, after struggling at first to cope with the intense heat and humidity in Kuala Lumpur.
Ireland play Wales today for a place in the 9th-12th play-offs - the losers will go in to the 13th-16th section.
Men's World Team Championships (at Kuala Lumpur): Pool F: Ireland 3, Hong Kong 0 (D Ryan bt A Khan 9-1, 9-2, 9-4; M Collins bt J Lee 10-9, 9-2, 9-2; P Foster bt W Hang 9-6, 10-8, 10-8).
