12-year-old makes history as Singapore's first Asian U13 squash champion

Singapore's Kareena Sashikumar clinched first place at the Asian Junior Individual Championships in Sichuan, China, becoming the first Singaporean to win a junior individual age-group title at the competition.

The 12-year-old, currently a Primary 6 pupil at Farrer Park Primary School, took home the championship title after the five-day tournament at the Sichuan Panshiya Highland Sports Training Base culminated in a final match against Japan's Rio Yoshino on May 24.

In just 15 minutes, Kareena swept past her Japanese counterpart with a score of 11-2, 11-3, 11-1 to take home the trophy.

Kareena is the first Singaporean to win an Asian junior individual age-group title at the Asian Junior Individual Championships since 1987 when the competition used a single-category format where all players under 19 years old competed together.

Various age groups were only added in 2006, and Singapore's previous best finish in the U-13 girls' category was in 2023 when Kayla Choy placed third, reported The Straits Times.

Reflecting on her win, Kareena said that the match was not an easy one and required a lot of mental preparation.

"My opponent won a very exciting match the day before, and the long rallies in today's match were also very close. She put a lot of pressure on me, but I handled the crucial points better in the end," she told Lianhe Zaobao.

Kareena's next tournament will be at the South-east Asian Junior Individual Championships in Manila that begins on June 10.

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dana.leong@asiaone.com