Wheadon eyes third consecutive squash title
CHAMPION Gary Wheadon will be out to make it a hat-trick of titles when the Brian Bands NMMU Open squash tournament takes place at the south campus from today till Sunday.
The KwaZulu-Natal lefthander, who now lives in Cape Town, has been a stalwart supporter of tournaments in the Eastern Cape and will be the early favourite to add another title to his belt.
But there is no guarantee of Wheadon, who has a national ranking of seven, making it three in a row because the NMMU organisers have lined up a strong men's entry, which includes former SA players Adrian Hansen and Greg la Mude.
Despite being past 40, Hansen remains one of the toughest competitors in the game, while local favourite La Mude will be smarting after a rare league defeat to NMMU's Jason le Roux on Tuesday. That result puts Le Roux in the reckoning as well, although the NMMU man is doubling up as one of the tournament organisers and this may divert his attention from the affairs on court.
Le Roux finished third and fourth in the first two editions against some of the country's top players, but remained circumspect about his chances of a win this year.
"Perhaps I can cause a few upsets," he said.
Now in his final year, doing honours in sport science, Le Roux said the demands of the course presented him with very little time to train.
"I only hear the word training in class or when working in the gym training others," he quipped.
But nobody will write his chances off this weekend.
Among the women, Crusaders Challenge and EP Closed champion Jacqui Ryder stands out as the favourite, but it is good to see Lizelle Goosen in the field after taking time off when she had a baby.
Goosen is not yet at her best and probably lacks match fitness, but the weekend should provide good competition for her, particularly with players the calibre of Anlen Murray, Sarah O'Grady and Cindy Levey lined up against her.
The tournament begins at 5pm today and the men's final is scheduled for 2pm on Sunday. - Neale Emslie
