HIGH PERFORMANCE

SAMANTHA CORNETT CAPTURES SILVER MEDAL IN WOMEN’S INDIVIDUAL SQUASH EVENT AT THE GUADALAJARA PAN AM GAMES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -
October 17, 2011

OTTAWA (ON) – Samantha (Sam) Cornett of Deep River, Ontario captured the Silver Medal at the Pan American Games women’s individual squash event. The twenty year old Cornett, lost the gold medal match to World #14 and local favourite Samantha Teran of Mexico 3 games to zero (11-6, 11-4, 11-6).
Enroute to the gold medal match, Samantha Cornett dispatched Cecilia Cerqueti of Argentina (11-5, 11-3, 11-3), followed by defeating the tournament’s #2 seed Olivia Blatchford of the United States 11-7, 11-8, 8-11, 11-6, who is ranked #32 in the World on the women’s professional squash tour (WISPA). The win against Blatchford was Cornett’s best win of her young professional career. In the semi-finals Cornett took out fellow Canadian and reigning Canadian National Champion Miranda Ranieri of Waterloo, Ontario 11-9, 11-5, 5-11, 11-8.

The York University student recently moved to Toronto and trains at the National Squash Academy – Squash Canada’s new National Centre of Excellence under the tutelage of former World #1 Jonathan Power, Gary Waite, Jamie Nicholls and recently appointed Squash Canada Performance Director Jamie Hickox. Since January of 2011, Cornett has improved her professional ranking by more than 40 positions, moving from 86 in January to her current 46 in the world. Cornett has had a great year on the professional tour capturing 2 titles and reaching the finals of 4 WISPA events, she also placed 3rd at the Canadian Squash Championships losing to Ranieri in the semi-finals.

“Sam has showed tremendous improvement in the past 12 months and we are very pleased with her performance at the games and we are hopeful that this is just the beginning of a great squash career”, said Squash Canada Executive Director, Danny Da Costa.

The individual and doubles squash events were highly successful for Squash Canada athletes. Montreal’s Shawn Delierre captured the Bronze Medal in the Men’s Individual event, while Waterloo’s Miranda Ranieri captured the Bronze Medal in the individual event. Miranda Ranieri also teamed up with Stephanie Edmison of Toronto to capture the Bronze Medal in the Women’s doubles event. The Men’s & Women’s team competitions begin tomorrow, Canada is well positioned to bring home more medals. “We were hopeful to win 5 medals at this games and we are well positioned to do that”, said Da Costa.

  ONTARIO TEAMS POLICIES

ELIGIBILITY FOR SELECTION

Be an individual member of Squash Ontario and in good standing with Squash Ontario

Be either a Canadian citizen or a landed immigrant

Have resided in Ontario for 12 months preceding the Closed Championship in the season of selection or be in full time attendance at a university or college in the Province of Ontario.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Have participated in 1 Ontario sanctioned soft ball event, said participation to have occurred between successive Ontario Closed Championships

Have participated in the Ontario Closed Championship in the year of selection

Be in full time attendance at a university or college, in which case the player may compete for either his/her home province or his/her resident province

Selection will be based on order of finish in the Ontario Closed Championship in the year of selection.

The committee will reserve the right to select team members if the 10th place finisher in the men’s draw and the 8th place finisher in the women’s draw decline their position for the provincial team.

SELECTION OF TEAM ONTARIO

Will be made no later than December 15 and will be confirmed by the High Performance Committee and approved by the Squash Ontario Board of Directors. An alternate shall also be selected

INJURY

Once a player has been selected, Squash Ontario will notify the player just prior to booking travel arrangements to once again ensure player has accepted his/her selection. If a player withdraws after that date, that player will be responsible for any costs incurred by Squash Ontario for the team including but not limited to travel, unless a doctor’s note is provided.