By Andrew Dent
Media Liaison Officer
Squash Australia

Deakin University pair Rex Hedrick and Melody Francis will join the University of Queensland’s Nathan Turnbull in the first ever Australian squash team to compete at a World University Squash Championships.

The championships, which are held every two years, will take place this year in Cairo from August 22-28.

The decision to send a team to Cairo came after Squash Australia and Australian University Sport began working closely together to promote squash in the university sector.

All three Australian players had successful junior careers and all have played tournaments on the men’s and women’s professional tours.

The 22-year-old Turnbull said he was unsure of the level of competition he would face in Cairo, but predicted a very strong home team. "It’s hard to know, because we don’t know who are university students and who aren’t," he said. "Egypt will probably have a really strong team because they have so many young guys hanging around the top 50 in the world."

Turnbull combines his psychology degree with coaching a Brisbane junior team and his own personal training for the men’s professional tour. He said the decision to send a team to these championships would boost squash in universities. "A lot of the younger guys I coach are already talking about it and thinking they have a chance to play for Australia if they go on to university," he said.

Hedrick, 19, a scholarship holder, with the Victorian Institute of Sport, is in his second year studying sport and exercise at Deakin University. "I’m really excited about going to Egypt - I think it’ll be a really good experience," Hedrick said. "I know some of the players from Canada who are going, and they are pretty good so I know it’s not going to be easy."

Francis, who is also 19, won the Czech Junior Open in 2007 and represented Australia at the Women’s World Junior Championships in Hong Kong last year.

She played her first tournament on the main women’s professional tour earlier this year, reaching the semi-finals of the Top End Open in Darwin.

At A Glance
Sixth World University Squash Championships
Cairo, August 22-28

Australian team
Nathan Turnbull 22 University of Queensland
Rex Hedrick 19 Deakin University
Melody Francis 19 Deakin University

Reserves
Nathan Kam 20 Macquarie University
Rebecca Jones 20 University of Canberra

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