Wearing the silver fern with pride (and nerves) Temwa Chileshe showed the Australian number one junior squash players how it’s done at the annual Trans-Tasman squash competition which was held in Sydney at the end of August.
During the week-long event the 15-year-old won all matches convincingly, including a 3-2 win against Queensland representative Jacob Ford who placed second at the junior Oceania competition earlier this year.
Chileshe says the competition was hard but the strain on his body was harder.
“It was mentally and physically challenging. Every day was different, there was a different amount of time between games which meant that sometimes we didn’t have enough recovery time,” Chileshe explained.
Chileshe has been a stand-out squash player for St Paul’s this year having won the South Island and Waikato age group competitions as well as placing second and sixth in the North Island and Oceania events respectively.
The squash player’s success across the regional and Oceania events is what secured him top spot in the New Zealand junior team that competed across the ditch. New Zealand won 85 of the 90 matches played, winning the competition title for the second consecutive year.
When returning from the competition Chileshe moved from number two in the under-15s to number 10 in the under-17s. He has his sights strongly set on the World Junior Championships when he reaches the under-19 division but until then he is determined to move his way back up the ranks to a number one or two position in the under-17s.
