Carol Owens | Former Women's Squash World Champ On NZ 2028 World Championship

0:00Spoiled at this Father's Day at Kermis' warehouse, with Biogland Vitamin K2 plus D3, 120 capsules now 49.99, safe 14, and safe 20% on EHP Lebs, Oxysred, Kiwi Strawberry, only 47.99, Kermis' warehouse, great savings, every day. The 2028 Squash World Championships are heading to Auckland, which is a great addition for New Zealand, Carol Owens, represented New Zealand and Australia. She's a former world champion and the first woman to win two medals for two different countries at the Commonwealth Games. Carol, thank you very much for joining us. How significant is this news for Squash here in this country? Oh, it's huge. It's huge for everybody. It's huge for the players. It's huge for the Squash community. The up and coming players, the people that are involved in clubs, and just Squash as a whole, everywhere, just bringing them into joy, our amazing country, and play also on a club level. Just send shivers down my spine, how exciting.

1:01Now, Martin Dowson, the Chief Executive of Squash, New Zealand, says, quote, this is the biggest thing to happen to Squash in New Zealand in my lifetime. And four months out before it makes its Olympic debut, do you tend to agree with those comments? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, we've had some great players here in this country, and they've always, most of the time, competed offshore, and we've held some really big New Zealand opens in the past few years, which have all gone off really well, but we've never drawn all the whole 32 players in men and women into one world championship. And also having a club event where players can come across from clubs all over the world and enjoy our country and play some Squash as well, which is just something probably we've never seen before on that scale. And it's going to be magnificent in that shittory, and I'm with Martin all the way. It's a very exciting craft sport. Carol, can you just explain that that world club championships and how that works at a run

2:04concurrently with the actual world championships? What is that competition and what significance does that add to the whole week? So, anyone that plays overseas at any sort of level is sort of one grading list now for sort of the whole world of people that play. I'm not 100% familiar with it, but I've only heard bits and pieces of this, but it really makes anyone that wants to come here, watch Squash, who has a passion for Squash plays at a club level, can get involved and go and watch all the matches and then pair up with people of their own sort of abilities in clubs. And I'm not sure how that structure is going to work. I think it's all still being pieced together, but it sounds really exciting for people that want to play some Squash. I know a lot of people that play sport, watch sport, also love to play it. So it gives them an opportunity to do both. What will it do for the sport here? You, I believe, coach still add around the traps and

3:06and are involved with, I think, kids and all that sort of stuff as well to try and grow the sport. So what will it actually do for the game here for those kids and throughout what he rage group it might be? Being able to go and see the very best players in the world playing in one of the pinnacle tournaments in Squash globally. I think it'll be amazing. I mean, it's always hard to, you know, obviously it's a numbers game and Egypt are at the top, you know, right now. And a lot of players are playing throughout Egypt, D'Nasia. And it's just since Squash got into the Olympics in 2028, just even the presence in countries like China is it's increased significantly. So we're getting now a lot of players coming into the country who are wanting to play Squash and, you know, trying to show them what a high level is, especially for some of that me that, you know, won the World Championship 20 years ago. It's hard to do. It's hard to, you know, give them that feel of what that world level is. And for them to be able to sit there and watch it, it's very

4:09different to say watching something on TV or, you know, being able to be there and be at the event and the vibe. I think, you know, just even saying to some of the kids that I coach that this is coming to New Zealand, the look on their faces, like, you know, did some school groups this year this last week. And they just can't believe it. They're like, what the World Championships, you know? Yeah, I think any world event that comes to small little New Zealand, and it's a huge thing for our country. Now, the Olympics, it's going to be 16 men and 16 women in the singles draw, quite a direct sort of tournament. What sort of format can we expect for the World Championships here? I'm not 100 percent. I mean, I'm guessing that it would be a 32 or possibly a 64 draw with qualifying. I'm not 100 percent sure of the numbers. Usually, a world open draw would be 64 draw or 32. But I'm sure we'll definitely get the best players in the world coming for it

5:12without a doubt. Carol, it's a world championship, so they won't need much more motivation to be at their absolute peak. But with the Olympic Games, just months after that and the day boo of it in the Olympics, how much more heightened do you think the competition would be considering the preparation they will have with an eye to LA28? It'll be a major, it'll be a major for match play, and you know, there'll be sort of the standing results going into that that Olympics. So, it's going to be, it'll be everything for all their preparation. They'll want to be there, they'll want to be playing their best because yeah, it'll be that sort of event just before the Olympics. So, it'll be a very, very big event in terms of the preparation for all the players for sure. And everyone knows Paul Cole, obviously, everyone in this country because he's been so remarkable. Do we have any players coming through that people might not know about at the moment who potentially

6:14could be competing for New Zealand at the World Championships in a couple of years time, do you think? Well, we've got a couple of young guys, are there still sort of ranked outside the top 50, Oli Dumbar, Elijah Thomas, who I've actually coached myself. And you know, they're not up in sort of World Top 10, we've obviously got Joe Elking, who's been out injured for a while, so we're hoping that she'll, you know, be good for the event, but you know, who knows, it's a hard sport on injuries, but Paul Cole is definitely our biggest hope for that, but who knows, you know, Squash is a funny game, which can produce, you know, when you play in your home country, who knows what can happen. Well, no doubt he'll be motivated to do very well here. For people who have never been to a squash event before, can you kind of explain a little bit for us what they can expect at something like this? Yep, obviously it's very fast, the ball's small, it moves a great pace,

7:20well they'll have an all-glass set up, so they'll be able to get 2,000 people around that court for any given match, and it'll be held in, I think, down in the conference centre in town, from what I believe, and yeah, it's, unless you've seen Squash live, as I say on TV, it looks slow, and a lot of people will say, oh yeah, I can play that, I don't know if you've played yourself, but that small ball and that ball racket is very frustrating, so yeah, but it's really intense, and the players just so athletic, you know, and the game has just got so far, I mean, even since I played the sport, you know, with streaking conditioning, and you know, just advancing all the time, and Paul's a phenomenal athlete, I mean, it's probably, you know, they don't call him Superman for no reason, he's really, really well respected on the tour, and you know, he loves

8:20playing, and he's just obviously one, the London classic, where his mates are all there cheering him on, and as he said, he loves being around his family and having that support from his mates, that were there in London, so it will no doubt be the pinnacle of his career, if he could capture a world title, because obviously he's won a couple of British opens, and the world title has eluded him, so it will be a very big event for him, for sure. It's funny, you mentioned Guy playing Squash, Carol, because he got absolutely, has you know what had it to him by Anima Cook, who is far from Paul Cole on the athletic scale. I wanted to ask you about what this means for sport, the sport as a whole, and especially on the global stage, because I'm reading here that Wayne Browns announced that approximately $2.5 million in regional GDP, and nearly 20,000 visitor nights will be on their way to Auckland, do you expect the whole Squash world to come in terms of fan base?

9:22Well, we're most certainly hoping so, I mean, and what a great opportunity to summer, you know, come and enjoy what New Zealand has to offer, and I'm sure that that's a big part of having this sort of event here is to bring that Squash community in, and as I said, to have players be able to come and play themselves, no matter what level they are, you know, you're now including anyone except the Squash racket, even yourself, to come along and jump into a club and play at their level. So what a fantastic opportunity, and yeah, I'm, I've no doubt, I mean, we always travel here to the rest of the world, obviously, because we're so far away, and every sport has that, has that issue, but we're hopefully, you know, the support of the, of the Squash playing, you know, community that they'll all get behind it, and they'll see that as a, as a, just a awesome opportunity to have a, have a holiday and enjoy what we've got to offer here and spend

10:24their dollars here in Auckland, it's going to be fantastic. It is a fantastic sport to be live at, in particular, and see the very best, throw themselves around and make ground so, so quickly. Hey, Carol, fantastic to have you on. Thank you so much for your expert, expertise and your, your views as well, and we can't wait for 2028, 28, roll on, eh? Yep, it'll be great, thanks so much. Thank you, Carol, not every day we get to have a world champion on no, exactly right. Millseon Guy.