N.Z. sending team to squash champs

Press, 14 May 1985, Page 26

N.Z. sending team to squash champs

After two months of uncertainty Kathy Hargreaves, of Christchurch, can go ahead with her plans for a squash trip to Ireland. Back in early March Mrs Hargreaves was appointed as the manager-coach of the New Zealand team for the junior women’s world championships, to be held in Ireland in August. But it was not until this week that the New Zealand Squash Rackets Association agreed to send a team. The N.Z.S.R.A. made the decision on Wednesday after evaluating the results of the seven-month training programme undergone by the junior women’s squad. Under the association’s international development programme policy it will only enter teams in world junior championships if it considers that squad members are of a suitable standard. Mrs Hargreaves, five times the South Island champion, is

now in the Masters age-group, but she was still good enough a player to represent Canterbury in the national inter-district teams’ event last season. She has managed Canterbury women’s teams and is a qualified New Zealand senior coach. The final team of four will not be announced until Monday, June 3, at the end of the North Island open championships in Auckland. The training squad members are Awhina Chapman (Hamilton), Lynora Hati (Murupara), aged only 13, Justine Marriott (Christchurch), Marie Pearson (Auckland), Michelle Royal (Rotorua), Debra Shaw (Kaitaia) and Fleur Townsend (Auckland). At least nine countries are expected to compete in the world event which has been transferred from Belfast to Dublin because of recent threats from Irish Republican Army factions.