World Games-2022: Crouen and Gilis win gold medals

Victor Crouen (France) and Tinne Gillis (Belgium) became the new World Games champions after defeating Grégoire Marche (France) and Lucy Beecroft (Great Britain). Meanwhile, Miguel Rodriguez (Colombia) and Colin Omar (France) won bronze.

Viktor Crouen [3/4] advanced to the finals with wins over Yannick Wilhelm, Shahjahan Khan [3/4] and Miguel Rodriguez [3/4]. Faced in the final against Grégoire Marsh [1], as in his quarter-final victory over Khan (USA), Kruen was forced to use all his willpower and bounce back after losing the first game.

After Marsh won the first game 11-9, world No. 18 Crouen found himself in a tough spot, with Gregoire having two game balls to go 10-8 in the second set. However, the 23-year-old was able to keep his composure and saved both game balls before eventually equalizing with a 14-12 victory.

The next time it was Marsh's turn to respond, the 32-year-old regained the lead with a 12-10 win. However, from that moment on, the 13th racket of the world became very difficult. Crouen still managed to win the first squash gold among men at the World Games after the triumph of the Frenchman Gregory Gauthier in 2013, winning with a score of - 3:2 (9-11, 14-12, 10-12, 11-3, 11 -2) .

Kruen said: “Winning gold is a huge achievement for my country and myself, and I am proud that I fought to the end. I'm very happy!"

In the women's final, Tinne Gillis [1] showed a mature performance by defeating Lucy Beecroft [5/8] in three games. Beecroft, who, like Gillis, reached the final unbeaten, still made the world No. 13 work hard on the court to win all three games 3-0 (11-9, 11- 7, 11-6).

"I'm very, very proud of my gold medal today," Gillis said. “I hope my country and my family are proud of the award! I'm very happy!

There were no surprises in the medal matches. Bronze medals were won by Miguel Rodriguez (Colombia) and Colin Omar (France). The 2013 bronze medalist began his hunt for a second World Games medal with a fairly comfortable 11-5 victory in the first game. Very tight games followed as Rodriguez barely saved two game balls to take Game 3 12-10 and then beat the decisive Game 4 13-11. The girls got a little more intense - in the fight for third place, Colin barely defeated Hayley Mendez [5/8] -3-2 (11-6, 5-11, 11-9, 6-11, 11-8). In the decisive fifth game, Omar still got ahead of her rival and earned the first of three French medals that day.

Ukraine at the World Games 2022

Ukraine has set its own record for winning awards at the World Games and took third place in the medal standings. In our piggy bank - 16 gold, 12 silver and 17 bronze medals.

Ukrainian squash players also did not lag behind, Anastasia Kostyukova won the first ever victory for Ukraine in squash at the World Games, beating the Hungarian Hanna Chinyera Chukva with a score of 2:0 and took 17th place in the medal standings.

“I adapted to the second match and was able to show a decent game. It was my revenge, eight months ago I played with Hannah and lost 1:3 to her at the PSA tournament.

I am proud that I am Ukrainian, it is an honor for me to represent my country, and I am glad that in this difficult time I was able to bring Ukraine the first victory in squash at the World Games!"

As for the three of our athletes: Nadezhda Usenko, Dmitry Shcherbakov and Valery Fedoruk left the games for places after losing in the first and the second round.

Results of the Anastasia Kostyukova Games

July 13 Round of 32 Match
Chen Nga Ching (Hong Kong): Anastasia Kostyukova 2:0 (11-4; 11-4)

July 14 Round of 16 Plate Match
Anastasia Kostyukova: Hanna Cinyere (Hungary) 2:0 (12-10; 11-8)

July 15 Quarterfinals Plate Match
Anna Serme (Czech Republic): Anastasia Kostyukova 2:0 (11-9; 11-2)

Results of Nadia Usenko Games

July 13 Round of 32 Match
Nadia Usenko: Satomi Watanabe (Japan) 0:2 (3-11; 3-11)

July 14 Round of 16 Plate Match
Laura Tovar (Colombia): Nadia Usenko 2:0 (11-4; 11-5)

Results of the Dmytro Shcherbakov Games

July 13 Round of 32 Match
Baptiste Masotti (France): Dmytro Shcherbakov 2:0 (11-2; 11-2)

July 14 Round of 16 Plate Match
Farkas Balazs (Hungary): Dmytro Scherbakov 2:0 (11-2; 11-8)

Results of the Valery Fedoruk Games

July 13 Round of 32 Match
Dmitry Steinmann (Switzerland): Valery Fedoruk 2:0 (11-6; 11-9)

July 14 Round of 16 Plate Match
Sean Conroy (Ireland): Valery Fedoruk 2:0 (11-8; 11-2)

Results of squash competitions at the 2022 World Games
among men and women:

See you at the World Games 2025 in the Chinese city of Chengdu, which will host the main start of the four-year period among non-Olympic sports!