After finishing 4th in the Austrian Junior Open last March and winning the Plate in the British Junior Grand Prix in October, Colette Sultana has achieved yet another remarkable result in the Under 13 Girls category. This time she has won Bronze in the Swiss Junior Open that was held in Zurich on 7-9 December.
In the first round, the young Maltese player was grouped with tournament top seed Marie Stephan of France, Cindy Merlo of Switzerland and Melissa Mader of Austria.
Knowing that it would be very difficult against the French girl, Sultana needed wins against the Swiss and the Austrian in order to secure a place in the semi-final. She won the first two matches in a very convincing manner, only dropping a total of 3 points to win 9/0 9/0 9/1 against Merlo and 9/0 9/2 9/0 against Mader.
Sultana conceded the third group match against Marie Stephan but not without a fight. Although Colette lost the match 7/9 0/9 9/6 1/9 she did very well to take a game off the French under 13 girls champion who is ranked 9th in Europe.
In the semi-final against Yvonne Basel from Germany, Sultana started strongly and won the first game fairly easily. However, Basel came back strongly to snatch the next three games and win the match 9/1 2/9 1/9 5/9. The earlier very tough match against the French girl had clearly left Colette less fresh than the German who on her part had an easier morning qualifier leading to the semi-final.
After a night’s rest Sultana was in great shape again for the match for Bronze against the Swiss number 1 player Kate Gadola. Although Gadola had home advantage it was the Maltese champion who took control of the match. Colette played some excellent squash to win the contest for 3rd and 4th place in straight sets 9/5 9/0 9/2.
The bronze medal is an excellent achievement for the Maltese junior player who continues to climb upwards in the European rankings. In fact Sultana will now overtake Gadola who is currently ranked 27th in Europe.
Next international tournament for Sultana will be the Austrian Junior Open in March of next year.
Colette’s outstanding progress would not have been possible without the guidance of her international coach Paul Lake and the support also of Malta Squash, Malta Olympic Committee, Malta Sports Council, Marsa Sports Club and Wilson Sporting Goods.
The next couple of years will be crucial for Colette as she will need to continue to participate regularly in international tournaments in order to maintain her steady progress at European level.
With further support, this promising young athlete is destined to become a top squash player for Malta.