England is the winner of the World Junior Team Championship 2022
England ended a 22-year wait for the World Junior Team Championship title by beating top seeds and defending champions Egypt 2-1 in the final in Nancy, France.
The decisive games for England turned out to be extremely tense. First number one Finnlay Withington was down 2-0 and additionally received a match point from Karim El Torky. However, the 18-year-old youth, silver medalist of the individual championship, answered brilliantly. Having saved a match point at 10-9 and another at 12-11. Withington displayed his brilliant talent and left the Egyptian support group breathless with a 14-12 victory. The Englishman kept the momentum going until the fourth game, which he took 11-3 before taking England's decisive lead in the fifth game 11-6.
Egypt's expected counterattack took place in the second leg. Salman Khalil adapted perfectly on the heated court to overcome John Bryant 3-1 to level the tie.
After a 1-1 draw, the burden of expectations fell on the shoulders of England's Sam Osborne-Wilde and Egypt's Mohamed Zakaria, who at the age of 14 made history as the youngest player to play in the team championship final.
Sam got off to a great start in the decider, dominating the opening game over the error-prone Zakaria 11-3. When the Englishman won the second game with a score of 11-6, English fans began to count down the minutes until the start of a large-scale celebration. However, Zakaria threatened to spoil the party with an 11-4 victory in the third game. In a frantic final game, both players traded leads. Zakaria appeared to be pulling Egypt to parity when he took a 7-5 lead, but it was only an appearance....Osborne-Wilde rallied, fueled up and collected the final points to end the game 11-8.
Osborne-Wild said: "I can't put into words what this win means to us and the way it ended. Look at the cup, it's got our names on it. I can't believe it."
Bryant added: "We've known each other for over eight years. We're best friends who have done this together."
Earlier in the day, the final round for places took place. India posted their highest total since 2012, beating the Netherlands 2-1 in the fifth-place play-off. Despite the defeat, sixth place is the highest ever finish for the Netherlands.
At the debut World Team Championship among juniors, Ukraine took penultimate 22nd place, beating the Kuwaiti team with a score of 2:1. We will remind that the junior team included - Dmytro Shcherbakov, Tymofiy Radionov, Volodymyr Anisimov and Maksym Tokar.
Radionov's playing deserves special attention. In four of the five matches played, Timofey won over opponents from Spain, Switzerland, Kuwait and Guyana, and it was mainly because of him that we got cherished points in almost every game.
Dmytro Shcherbakov took two out of five matches...but what is his match with the American Avi Agarwal worth, which was even rumored on the WSF website: "Scherbakov definitely strengthened his growing reputation with the match with Avi Agarwal and Hugo Lafuente Jaen."
There are many more games ahead of us, we can proudly say - the beginning has been made and in the future, only forward!
Results of the 2022 WSF World Junior Team Championship
USA-Ukraine 2-1
Avi Agarwal U.S.A. - Ukraine Dimitriy Scherbakov 2:3 (10-12 9-11 11-2 11-0 10-12)
Tad Carney U.S.A. - Ukraine Timofey Radionov 3:0 (11-7 11-6 11-4)
Rehan Luthra U.S.A. - Ukraine Volodymyr Anisimov 3:0 (11-2 11-4 11-2)
Spain-Ukraine 2:1
Dimitriy Scherbakov Ukraine - Spain Hugo Lafuente Jaen 2:3 (11-8 6-11 7-11 11-0 9-11)
Timofey Radionov Ukraine - Spain Christian Canelon 3:1 (21-19 7-11 11-9 13-11)
Maksym Tokar Ukraine - Spain Pablo Antolin Gallego 0:3 (3-11 5-11 3-11)
Switzerland-Ukraine 2:1
David Bernet Switzerland - Ukraine Dimitriy Scherbakov 3:0 (11-9 11-2 11-9)
Nero Harms Switzerland - Ukraine Timofey Radionov 0:3 (6-11 5-11 5-11)
Lasse Widmer Switzerland - Ukraine Volodymyr Anisimov 0:3 (11-5 11-2 11-5)
Ukraine-Kuwait 2:1
Dimitriy Scherbakov Ukraine - Kuwait Abdul Rahman Mohamad Al Maghrabi 3:0 (14-12 11-5 11-8)
Timofey Radionov Ukraine - Kuwait Saad Mohamed Al Suwaid 3:2 (11-7 10-12 11-4 6-11 13-11)
Maksym Tokar Ukraine - Kuwait Khaled Alfaresi 0:2 (4-11 8-11)
Guyana-Ukraine 2:1
Dimitriy Scherbakov Ukraine - Guyana Shomari Wiltshire 2:3 (9-11 12-10 11-5 7-11 12-14)
Timofey Radionov Ukraine - Guyana Samuel Ince-Carvalhal 3:1 (11-6 11-9 8-11 11-4)
Volodymyr Anisimov Ukraine - Guyana Nicholas Verwey 0:3 (2-11 5-11 4-11)
Final standings:
1: England
2: Egypt
3/4: Pakistan and Malaysia
5: India
6: The Netherlands
7: USA
8: France
9: Ireland
10: Canada
11: Colombia
12: Australia
13: Hong Kong, China
14: Korea
15: New Zealand
16: Spain
17: South Africa
18: Scotland
19: Germany
20: Switzerland
21: Guyana
22: Ukraine
23: Kuwait
