Slovakia and Slovenia win European Squash Division three titles in tournament hosted in Gibraltar

Gibraltar successfully hosted its four days of European Squash Federation third division championships with Slovenia women and Slovakia men walking away with the division title.
For Gibraltar, after the first two days of defeats, Friday and Saturday saw some celebrations as the men’s team recorded victories to ensure they finished 13th from 15th.
Gibraltar recorded its first win on the third day of the European Squash Division three championships with a victory over Guernesy, this year’s Island Games hosts. A victory which they savoured in front of their home crowd.
The 3-1 victory saw Ivan Flores, Michael Schacaluga and Michael Pinggera winning their respective matches on the day securing a play-off against Latvia on the final day.
Friday’s victory was topped off with another victory against Latvia, leaving the latter and Guernsey at the foot of the table.
For the women’s team their defeat against Sweden on Friday meant that they were to play Luxembourg that same day. The latter coming away with a 3-0 victory leaving Gibraltar at the foot of the table.
The weekend was to see the fourth and last day started with teams involved in the play-offs.which would determine the seeding next year.
The first medal of the day was decided between Romania men and Italy. Bronze went to Romania, which makes this their best result ever.
The women’s bronze match between Sweden and Italy was a replay of their pool match, and again the Scandinavians had the better end.
The women’s final was also a replay of the pool match between Slovenia and Romania. However, with the results reversed Slovenia was to come away as champions on the day to claim the Third division title.
In the men’s final Slovakia and Norway battled it out with Slovakia taking the initial lead before Norway came back with the scores leveled at 2-2, but with 9:7 in games for Slovakia, making them the ETC Division 3 champions of 2023.
Gibraltar Squash will be hosting its Masters Open between the 12th and 14th May with entries closing on 5th May. This should attract some much wanted interest with World veteran’s champion Ivan Flores he man everyone will be looking to beat.

Data Source European Squash Federation