England’s Withington captures World Junior silver

England’s Finnlay Withington captured silver at the 2022 WSF World Junior Squash Championships in Nancy, France today, becoming the first Englishman in twenty years to reach a World Junior final.

After a series of upsets, the men's final saw England's 3/4 seed Withington take on 5/8 seed Rowan Damming of the Netherlands in a repeat of their European Under 19 Championships final in April.

18-year-old Withington from Manchester, had overcome compatriot Sam Osborne-Wylde in a hotly contested quarter-final before beating top seed Muhammad Hamza Khan in a thrilling five-game semi-final. Meanwhile, Damming - who beat England's Franklyn Smith in the second round - had ended Egyptian interest as he beat 14-year-old Mohamed Zakaria to reach the final.

The European Under 19 final had gone Withington's way with a four game win, but today there was no stopping Damming as the 17-year-old Dutchman prevailed in straight games.

Damming raced away to take the lead 11-4 in the first, then got the better of a tight finish to a close second game, doubling his advantage 12-10 with help from a trio of uncharacteristic Withington errors. Withington looked to be struggling physically towards the end of that game, and it was the Dutchman who maintained the momentum as he went 9-4 up in the third.

Withington pulled a few points back, but from 9-8, Damming took the final two points to clinch the title and become the first Dutch World Junior champion.

Following the match, Withington said: "Happy to get to the final, although immensely disappointed to lose. I will come back stronger. Big thanks to Saran, my Grandad, and my coach Josh."

Coach Josh Taylor followed with: "I'm incredibly proud of the group this week, they have done England proud. Every one of them has shown how far they've come and what they can achieve in the future. Big shout out to Finn, massive shift from him this week and he has shown his world class potential. It's time for the team event now...it's coming home!"

The women's semis were all-Egyptian, leading to a tenth consecutive all-Egyptian women's final in which second seed Amina Orfi came from two games down for the second day in a row to become champion at the age of 15.

Saran Nghiem progressed the furthest of England's women, losing out in a five game quarter-final to top seed Kenzy Ayman before finishing 7th. Asia Harris was 11th, Torrie Malik 16th, Emma Bartley 23rd and Amelie Haworth 27th.

Withington, joined by Smith, Osborne-Wylde and Jonah Bryant will now lead the men's team in their quest for the team title over the coming week, starting with pool matches against Korea, Australia and Kuwait with the play-off stage culminating with the final on 21st August.

England are nine-time winners of the team title, but their last victory was in 2000, and in 2018's most recent edition, they were runners-up to Egypt.

Watch replays of the WSF World Junior Individual Championships and live coverage of the Team Championships on the WSF YouTube channel.