WSF Men’s World Team Championship: New Zealand Go Down to Wales

The New Zealand Men’s Squash Team has gone down to No.6 seeds Wales at Tauranga’s Mercury Baypark Arena.

Competing in the WSF Men’s World Team Championship World No.3 Paul Coll continued his hot run of form, coming up against Joel Makin in a rematch of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games final.

The two were locked in a tight battle for the first game, with Coll eventually pulling away 13-11.

Makin then took the second comfortably before Coll rallied, taking the final two games to win 3-1 in 67 minutes.

However, it wasn’t enough to get the New Zealand Team over the line, with brothers Temwa and Lwamba Chileshe beaten by Owain Taylor and Emyr Evans, to give Wales a 2-1 win.

WALES 2-1 NEW ZEALANDOwain Taylor 3-1 Temwa Chileshe: 11-5, 11-4, 9-11, 11-3 (54m)Joel Makin 1-3 Paul Coll: 11-13, 11-4, 8-11, 5-11 (67m)Emyr Evans 3-0 Lwamba Chileshe: 11-4, 11-5, 14-12 (50m)

New Zealand has a rest day today before progressing to playoffs.

The days other action saw Germany deliver a seedings upset as they helped their side beat No.8 seeds Hong Kong, China, to top Group H.

In Group E, No.5 seeds USA and [9/12] seeds Czech Republic played out a 15-game thriller.

Czech Republic’s Jakub Solnicky gave his side the lead with a tight win over Andrew Douglas, before Timothy Brownell clinched a 11-7, 10-12, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9 win against Viktor Byrtus and Shahjahan Khan squeezed past Daniel Mekbib 12-10 in game five with the scores at 2-2.

The top four seeds also entered the draw, with No.1 seeds and defending champions Egypt beating Malaysia, No.2 seeds England overcoming South Africa, No.3 seeds France beating Australia and No.4 seeds Switzerland defeating Nigeria.

The WSF Men’s World Team Championship resumes today, 13 December.

Click here to view results and draws for the 2023 WSF Men’s World Team Championship.

The Championship features four athletes from each of the 24 competing nations, with teams going head-to-head in a best of three matches format. The draw includes eight of the top ten male athletes in the world. 

Commonwealth Games Singles & Mixed Doubles Champion Paul Coll headlines the New Zealand team, joined by brothers Temwa and Lwamba Chileshe, as well as young Auckland athlete Elijah Thomas.

About the New Zealand Festival of Squash

The New Zealand festival of Squash will see more than 500 matches played across three major tournaments. The festival is made up of the NZ Squash Open to be contested December 5th – 10th, the Oceania Junior Championships December 5th - 7th and the WSF Men’s World Teams Championships December 11th – 17th. 

With more than 400 athletes competing from across 30 nations, the event is being billed as a fantastic celebration of sport and competition.

Tickets for the 2023 Festival of Squash are on sale with more information available at www.festivalofsquash.co.nz

The Lucino Vanities Men’s NZ Open draw and schedule is available here.

The Barfoot and Thompson Women’s NZ Open draw and schedule is available here.

The nations for the WSF Men’s World Team Championship are available here.