Borja Golan, the former men’s World No.5, definitely brought the Spanish mucho calor with him last week to Galway. He wasn’t in town, though, as a tourist for a leisurely stroll along the resplendent Salthill Prom or a refreshing jump off the Blackrock diving board into the sea with the warm summer sun glistening in the blue sky.
Instead, there was squash business to attend to up the Threadneedle Road. David Noone, the Squash Ireland performance coach, had invited the 42-year-old out West to the Galway Lawn Tennis Club to help prime the national U19 squad for the upcoming World Squash Junior Championships.
Ireland will have a 10-strong team in Cairo for the event from June 21 through to August 1, and with seven of these players in attendance in Galway, along with other promising up-and-coming talents, Golan was delighted to share his wisdom.
“It’s really nice,” he said about his Galway visit. “It’s not the first time in Ireland, but the first time in Galway and I’m really happy. I have known Irish people for a long time, I was playing with many players from Ireland, and I always liked being in Dublin and Belfast, playing at Fitzwilliam a few times and enjoying the tournaments.
“So I have really liked coming back and spending time with these kids who love their squash, it’s really been a fantastic few days.
“I hope they are enjoying it, and I am bringing them some more motivation to help them in some parts of the game to improve. I am thrilled. Thanks to David for inviting me here, and we are doing our best for them. It’s been a good few days.”
Golan has seen enough in recent times – not only in Galway but on his coaching travels around the globe – to enthuse that squash in Ireland has a promising future. “They are doing great things in Squash Ireland; the structure is very professional,” he said.
“You can see the juniors are at a good level and they have many juniors. Also, the seniors are improving. I saw seniors like Hannah Craig and Sam Buckley; they are playing great, and they are in the top 50 now. These are good times for squash in Ireland. They are working well, and I am sure there will be a few more players in a few years.”
Ireland isn’t the only place where Golan believes that squash is flourishing, highlighting the sport’s admission to the next Olympics in 2028 as concrete evidence of a global growth in quality and depth of play that is also reflected in the calibre of talent heading to the Junior Championships in Cairo.
“Squash has grown up so much in the last three, four years,” he reckoned. “We can see also now with it being in the Olympics, it’s another step that we are taking to grow out the sport.
“The junior level is fantastic. It’s a really big draw in Cairo, 100 women, 134 boys. The top one in the draws is number five in the world (Amina Orfi), and Mohamad Zakaria is like 14th in the world.
“This is one of the World Championships that is at a better level for sure. It’s fantastic and being in Cairo, which is the centre of squash, is going to be a very good experience for the players and I wish the best of luck to all of them.”
Following a 20-plus-year career as a professional player, Golan has switched to coaching and is loving his new involvement in squash. “Playing squash was the best thing I could do. It was my life, it was my passion, so the second thing I like most is what I am doing now.
“I’m trying to help other players to find their dreams, to help them, to tell them the right things, don’t do the wrong things like I did. Try to help them in general to follow a dream, to be the best version they can be.
“I am doing different things for squash, not only coaching. “I’m also doing different things in our country (Spain) and also going to different places like here in Ireland to try and change the knowledge, which is good for me and good for them, I think, so I am happy to be involved with squash.”
