The Road to Quito

2 years later, we have picked another team to represent Canada at the Junior Men’s World’s. In 2008 our team was Nick Sachvie, Andrew Schnell, Kelly Shannon, Fred Reid and Arjun Gupta. We were seeded 8th and with such a young team, we were not sure where we would end up placing. We did a week preparation in Luzerne, Switzerland for the event in Zurich and that was instrumental in helping us attain the best result for the Junior Men’ in 4 world’s…..7th place.

On July 27th the Junior Men’s World’s Individual part of the competition begin in Quito, Ecuador. Well, Quito is almost 10,000 feet above sea level so the preparation for this is critical to ensure the athletes are acclimatized properly.

We will begin in Calgary around July 11th where the team will train in Calgary for 5 days which is around 3500 feet. Our hope is to go to the mountains and further our acclimatization process at over 5000 feet and then leave for Ecuador on the 19th. Soon after arriving in Quito we will travel to a town in Ecuador called, Ambato. This town is around 8000 feet so will further enhance the process. We are booked in at a local Tennis and Squash Club and will be on court once or twice a day there for 4 days. We also will be planning a trip to the tourist destination of Banos, which is about an hour from Ambato.

The Individuals being on July 27th and the initial draws are out. It seems that we are scattered throughout the draws which is good and there are some very good potentials for some top 8 finishes in the Individuals. The seedings for the team event will be done before the competition, however, can change based on results from the Individual event. The team event begins on August 2nd and we are expecting to be seeded in the 5 – 8 bracket, however are planning on improving upon our seed and placing in the top 4. With the team of Andrew Schnell, Nick Sachvie, Arjun Gupta, Tyler Osborne and Mike McCue (Non Travelling Alternate) Canada is going into the 2010 Junior World’s with a very strong team that has vast International experience.

Go Canada!

Jonathan Hill, Head Coach