Camps Bay High School Matric learner, Lochlan Williamson from Hout Bay continued his heroics on the squash court with another dazzling display on the national stage at the SA National Junior Squash Championships, held in Johannesburg this past weekend.
Lochlan set himself the personal goal of breaking into the Top 15 on the National Rankings and managed to exceed these expectations, finishing the tournament ranked at #12. Lochlan has quickly climbed the rankings from #25 after being crowned the champion of the Boland Open in February to #19 in March after showing rich form at the Bloemfontein Open.
Receiving an invitation to the SA National Junior Squash is a prestigious honour as the competition is limited to the Top 32 players in the country, and only the Top 4 ranked players in each province.
Playing Squash at altitude is a big disadvantage for coastal players as the thinner air not only affects the bounce, flight and pace of the ball, but is also a “killer” on the lungs. Despite this, Lochlan exceeded his own expectations by beating both the SA #15 (3-1) and SA #10 (3-2) in the tournament, and finished the tournament with a National Ranking of #12. That is an improvement of 13 places in his National Rankings in just 2 months.
The next national tournament is the IPT in June, which is being played in Cape Town. Lochlan will be licking his lips in anticipation that he will finally have some home-ground advantage when he locks horns again with the country’s best players, with the aim of breaking into the Top 10 on the National rankings.