By Joel Makin, World No. 9 Ranked Squash Player

The summer break has arrived and in some ways it’s a bad time because I feel I was in good form, winning the Manchester Open and reaching the semi-finals of the British Open.

The Manchester Open is a mid-size tournament for us but the British Open is our Wimbledon, so to go there and perform, beating current World Champion Diego Elias in the quarterfinals, was great.

To perform well there under that level of pressure and in that atmosphere at a home championship for me in Birmingham where I live, it means a lot.

Having had the beginning of the season I had with the chronic injuries it was frustrating, but I always felt I was training well and ready to hit form when I came back.

Every athlete wants to be playing in front of big crowds and at big events and when you perform well on a big stage in front of home support, it really does mean more.

Looking at the Olympics coming up in France I’m excited at the prospect of possibly being there in four years’ time in Los Angeles.

We’ve finally secured our place on the biggest stage at the Olympics having come so close on numerous occasions.

In 2012, squash lost out narrowly to golf and again to wrestling more recently.

With golf, especially it was frustrating as for them it isn’t the pinnacle of their sport and lots of the top guys opted not to compete.

Now that squash is set to be in the games it’s a real boost for us and is a huge goal for the next four years.

It’s great that it’ll be in the United States too. They’ve become one of the biggest investors in the sport and there are more and more events there all the time so it should be a great atmosphere when we get there.

Whilst qualification for the games is a long way off, with only two places likely to be up for grabs it means there’ll be huge competition for places particularly between the home nations.

The Elshorbagy brothers, Mohamed and Marwan recently changed their registered nationality to English from Egyptian on residency having been here since they were teenagers.

That means there are now three players from Great Britain inside the current top 10 world rankings with Mohamed at seven, me ninth and Marwan tenth.

Mohamed spent five years at world number one, beating his brother in the final of the World Championships in 2017 and there will be lots of competition for those two places, which I’m sure will spur us on further.

Once I’m back from my break in August, I’ll be into the British Championships where we’ll be fighting against each other and hopefully I can regain the title I won in 2021.

Team selection is four years away though which gives some of the young 19-year-olds time to develop.

There are some really big talents. England’s Jonah Bryant has been particularly impressive and after another four years of developing he could be a top-level player and challenge the best.

There are no certainties that squash will become a permanent player in the Games going forward and this may be the only time it features so everyone will be desperate to make the most of this opportunity.

For me, I’ll be 33 by then and at my peak, hopefully injury free and ready to compete in what I expect will be the strongest ever era in squash history, with players pushing each other for Olympic qualification.

 

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