20 January 2005	Thursday	09 Zilhaj 1425

CHENNAI, Jan 19: With withdrawal of Japan at last minute, 10 countries will take part in 12th Asian Junior squash championship to be played here. Individual events to be played during Jan 20-23 will be followed by team championship Jan 25-28.

At a briefing here, N Ramachandran, secretary-general, Squash Rackets Federation of India, said the event is being funded by Indian government. There will be a total of nine and seven teams in men's and women's event respectively.

The men's individual draw consists of 60 players and women's 34 making it one of biggest draws in an Asian junior championship. Pakistan's Amir Atlas Khan is top seeded followed by India's top-ranked Saurav Ghosal, Bilal Zaman (Pakistan) and Abdullah Mezayan (Kuwait).

India's Joshna Chinappa gets top billing in women section followed by Annie Au, Joey Chan and Chiu Ka Kei (all Hong Kong). Pakistan, Kuwait, India and Malaysia are seeded in that order in men's team event while it is Hong Kong, Malaysia, India and Singapore in distaff section. -PPI