The reason why Iranian national squash team players do not train with Asian competitors

In a conversation with Mehr reporter, Atefeh Ramezani said about holding the selection competitions of the national team: Our selection competitions were held from December 22 to 26, hosted by Tehran. For this round of selections, the top 8 players in the country's ranking in the adult age group and 2 players from the under-19 age group were invited, and in the end, among these 10 athletes, Ferishte Eghetiri, Parmin Nekopayan, Mona Fallahati and Narges Soltani became members of the national team. Women's squash came out.

He added: “The important thing that we saw in this selection period was the high quality of the matches, which even the referees clearly pointed out.” We are happy that Iranian squash, especially in the women's section, has reached a position where we have no problem with having good players. The same four players who were invited to the national team camp are not far away from their other competitors, this is very satisfying for us as a technical staff. We are relieved that our hand is open in the selection, on the other hand, the athletes who did not succeed in the selection are not disappointed because they can try their luck again in the next stages.

The head coach of the national squash team said: “We will start training the team soon.” According to the plan, we are going to hold a one-week camp every month so that the team will gradually reach the optimal preparation and coordination to participate in the Asian Championship. The composition of the national team has completely changed and most of our players are young. Among these four selected players, Nekopayan is 18 years old, and Soltani and Falahati are 20 years old.

Explaining the continuation of the federation's plans for the preparation of the national team, Ramezani said: “Recently, we had a meeting with the Ministry of Sports and Youth, and we managed to explain the plan and goals of the national squash team well, and to get the approval of the Ministry of Sports for the implementation of some cases.” Both we as the technical staff of the national team and the officials of the federation have always talked about our goals.

He pointed out: The most important goal we are pursuing is to win a quota for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and to win a medal at the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya. It is not easy to achieve these goals, but we are determined to do our best to achieve them. In this way, participating in various international competitions and holding domestic and foreign camps are important programs of the federation.

The head coach of the national squash team said that we proposed 2 joint overseas camps to the ministry and the federation, and said: The Asian Championship will be our first overseas event in which we participate. To participate in these competitions, we need to be well prepared. We suggested to the federation that we hold a joint camp with foreign teams in March. Our proposal is the countries of the teams of Egypt and France, which have not been decided yet, but they are in the federation's program so that the necessary checks are done.

Ramezani, in response to this question, do you think these two countries will cooperate with Iran's national team to obtain visas to hold a joint camp? He explained: By the way, one of our challenges is the issue of visas, whether for holding a joint overseas camp or participating in some competitions. There are many Asian countries where we can organize these camps more easily, but since our most serious competitors are from this continent and they may not use top players in these camps, we decided to have this camp in these 2 countries.

He added: “Our relationship with Egyptian players and French coaches is very good, but we definitely need the help of the international and diplomacy department of the Ministry of Sports and Youth to hold such camps.” France and Egypt are suggested for now, but if something goes wrong, you can certainly replace another camp.

The head coach of the national squash team in response to the question that all 4 selected players are going to be sent to the Asian Championship and the prepared overseas camp? He said: For the overseas camp, until today, our decision is to send all 4 players. We sent 2 players for last year's championship competition. This year, our goal is to increase the number a little, but we have not yet decided the number of people we will send.

Ramadani about what result do you think you will achieve in the Asian fights? Said: This tournament is hosted by Malaysia. The best squash players in the world are in Asia and that makes it difficult for us. Our goal is to be able to win a medal in the Asian Games and that too in the team division. So all these competitions we go to are a kind of preparation for success in Nagoya. Of course, not to be indifferent to the Asian Championship, but our big goal is the Asian Olympics.

In the end, he stated that the expectations of squash have increased; He said: Considering the recent successes that he had authority in various competitions, in addition to the fact that the expectations for us to get good results have increased, we are also witnessing a good growth in this field. After the authoritarian history-making, better investments are made in this area, which promises good days. The federation has good support for the women's field, and I hope this process will continue until the 2028 Olympics.