by Ian Marshall, Editor
Facing the line-up of Sweden’s Oskar Danielsson and Jacob Dillstroem in harness with India’s Raegan Alburquerque, after the opening two matches in the final, silver rather than gold appeared the favoured option.
Raegan Alburquerque gave his team the perfect start. He beat Marwan Abdelwahab (11-9, 11-3, 8-11, 11-9), before Oskar Danielsson doubled the lead by overcoming Youssef Abdel-Aziz (4-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-1), the leading name on duty in Sharm El-Shiekh and fresh from reaching the second stage of proceedings at the recently concluded Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games.
Facing possible defeat, Abdelrahman Dendan sparked the recovery. He overcame Jacob Dillstroem (8-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-8), before Youssef Abdel-Aziz levelled matters by securing victory against Raegan Alburquerque (13-11, 12-10, 11-4) and Marwan Abdelwahab accounted for Oskar Danielsson (11-9, 11-7, 6-11, 11-5) to complete the fightback.
A close five match defeat for Oskar Danielsson, Jacob Dillstroem and Raegan Alburquerque; at the semi-final stage it had been the reverse scenario, a five match win in opposition to the trio formed by Russia’s Aleksandr Kraskovskii in partnership with Egypt’s Marwan Nader and Moamen Ashraf had been the outcome. It was a contest in which Moamen Ashraf overcame Jacob Dillstroem (11-9, 6-11, 11-5, 4-11, 11-7) and Aleksandr Kraskovskii prevailed against Raegan Alburquerque (9-11, 13-11, 11-13, 11-6, 11-9) but those were the only successes for the defeated, the absence of Marwan Nader being a telling factor in the outcome.
Somewhat differently in the counterpart semi-final, Youssef Abdel-Aziz, Marwan Abdelwahab and Abdelrahman Dendan had recorded a three-one win in opposition to China’s Han Yunqi, Ding Shixian and Chi Haowen. Backbone of the success was Youssef Abdel-Aziz; he beat both Han Yunqi (11-3, 11-4, 11-3) and Ding Shixian (11-7, 11-6, 10-12, 13-11).
Play in the Junior Boys’ Team event concluded, attention now turns to the individual competitions; overall matters conclude in Sharm El-Shiekh on Sunday 28th October.
