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Team England produced a stellar performance to overcome Switzerland in the final of the European U19 Team Championships in Prague on Sunday and claim their tenth consecutive title.
On their way to landing a 33rd European Team title, the young England squad, which includes 16-year-olds Sam Todd and Ben Smith, cruised through the pool matches and topped their group without dropping a game.
The quarters and semis were far from plain-sailing however and saw top seeds England edge both Spain and the Czech Republic 2-1 respectively to set up a final showdown with second seeds Switzerland.
Second string Ben Smith got England's campaign off to a winning start in the final, seeing off a spirited challenge from Switzerland’s Campbell Wells, winning 11-7, 11-3, 10-12, 11-8 and leaving England’s fate in the hands of top strings Sam Todd and Elise Lazarus.
Two-time British Junior Open champion Sam Todd was pushed all the way by Swiss No.1 Yannick Wilhelmi in a gripping five-game contest which saw the Yorkshireman produce a remarkable comeback.
18-year-old Wilhelmi, the European U19 runner-up, had beaten Todd in two of their three previous encounters, most recently at last year’s World Junior Championships which also went down to the wire.
It was Todd who took the first game following a tie-break with Wilhelmi proceeding to claim the second and third. At 2-1 down, Todd found his rhythm and fought tooth and nail to claim the fourth and force a decider. Todd showed his class in the fifth, racing to a 7-0 lead before Wilhelmi replied, only for Todd to turn up the heat and close out a 12-10, 7-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-6 victory for England.
Commenting on his performance, Todd said:
"It was an amazing feeling winning the title for England and was an even greater feeling winning the title against a player that I have only beaten once before.
"Overall England did very well throughout the team event and are one of the youngest teams ever to win the title."
Reacting to the team’s performance, England Coach Lee Drew said: “I am so proud of the players and delighted with the performance from such a young squad.
“This was a very competitive team competition where the other nations clearly came to win, making all the knockout matches incredibly tough.”
“It was inspiring to see how the players bounced back and learned from tough earlier matches. Each and every one of them had challenges to overcome during the trip and this has been a significant learning experience for them. I look forward to seeing how our players move forward and develop after this experience.”
England enjoyed further success earlier in the week in the European U19 Individual Championships which saw Katie Malliff and Elise Lazarus claim silver and bronze respectively.
View final results at European Squash.
