Men's podium finish at European Team Championships

Scottish Squash beat Germany in the play off for the bronze medal in the European Team Championships in Warsaw, Poland at the weekend. The Scottish team only narrowly lost out to England in the Gold medal position and France who won the Silver medal. This is the first medal for the Scotland Squash men’s team in 17 years and demonstrates a significant positive step forward for the team.[posts layout=’grid-3-col’][/posts]

Scottish Squash new CEO Maggie Still said:

“Coming from a performance sport background I recognise the hard work, focus and commitment necessary to win medals in major international competition. This is a fantastic result and I am very proud of the players. The foundations of success were already in place at Scottish Squash, however, I believe that the recent input of Martin Heath as Elite Performance Coach and Paul Bell as National Coach have cemented a positive performance culture which has clearly made a difference to the Heriot Watt University based team. Scottish Squash are grateful to Sport Scotland and the Scottish Institute of Sport whose financial and technical support has enabled this major success.”

The bronze medal achieved at the highest level of European competition by the men’s team followed on from the gold medal that the women’s team won in Division 3 of the European Championships in April. The successes bode well for the future of Squash in Scotland and the campaign for success in the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast in 2018.

A delighted Alan Clyne, the Scottish number one, said: “This is a fantastic result for us all. The teamwork has been great – we feel that we train well together and we compete well together. This has been our goal for a number of years and we have finally got onto the podium and been rewarded with a medal. A great achievement for squash in Scotland.”

Heath added: “I am delighted for both the women’s team in winning their division and now the men getting bronze after giving England a good run in the semis. The guys really earnt this over the past five years through the work they did and the near misses they had.

“At this early stage the contribution we made as coaches was in providing a positive perspective and instilling confidence and the belief that everything is possible. Hopefully we can use this as momentum to make a big difference in their games and to stimulate a positive era for Scottish Squash.”

Greg Lobban said: “The Euros was a massive success for Scotland this year and definitely one of the highlights of my career so far. The Europeans is such a tough event physically and mentally on the whole team and to come away this year with a bronze medal feels great! It was 4 years of heartbreak really and everyone was just over the moon with the outcome. Big thanks to Roger Flynn and Neil Gibson who weren’t there this year but have played a massive role in helping us achieve this goal. Also to the new coaches of Scottish Squash, Martin Heath and Paul Bell, Linda Davie (team manager). Scotland being the 3rd best men’s team in Europe, not bad!”

Kevin Moran said: “We’ve all been products of the junior academy program and have been brought up with the same philosophy. In that representing Scotland at senior level is the one most important and special things we would do in our time as pros. Its been roughly the same team for a few years now and we all want to win for Scotland but also each other which always made the heartbreak of previous year that wee bit harder to swallow. Its pretty surreal that it’s now finally happened. Winning a medal for Scotland, with this incredible group of guys, has probably been the highest point in my career.”