UJ squash master does it again

UJ’s squash master adds a World Varsity Squash champion silver medal to her trophy cabinet.

Alexa Pienaar continues to take medals home as she presses on to perform at the highest levels of squash.

She recently competed in the World University Squash championships hosted in Birmingham, England. After an intense tournament, she was able to claim the silver medal.

Pienaar shared her expectations going into the competition and said, “I did not do too well when I last played in this event in 2016, losing in the first round and this time I targeted a spot in the top eight, at the least.”

The University of Johannesburg student surpassed her goals as she made it all the way to the final.

Pienaar faced and beat the top seed of the tournament the English Grace Gear in the earlier rounds of the competition and Zoe Foo of Malaysia in the semi-finals.

She then had England’s Lily Taylor standing between her and the gold medal but unfortunately went down in straight games.

Pienaar said, “I feel that I could have played better, but she was obviously the better player on the day.

I was a little disappointed in not being able to keep the intensity and level of focus that I had up until that point, but I was still happy to have made it so far.”

She did state that the loss came with a massive learning experience she will use as she continues her squash career.

Pienaar believes she made the country proud with her performance and success.

She said, “The definite highlights for me were carrying the South African flag at the opening ceremony as well as standing on the podium while the national flags were hoisted. That was a really special memory.”

Having only lost once in the pool stages and once more to the Czech Republic in the fifth-place playoff, Team South Africa finished sixth in the tournament.

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