New U19 Junior Nationals champions Aaron Knox and Shriya Drawid are part of a 35-strong Irish contingent registered for this weekend’s German Junior Open in Hamburg, a travel list that also includes BU15 champion Michael Lai and BU13 winner Harry Knox.
Celtic’s Aaron Knox and Belfast’s Drawid came out on top in their respective Nationals finals last Sunday at Sunday’s Well, with Mount Pleasant’s Lai and Harry Knox topping the podium over at Highfield.
This quartet will be joined at the 327-player, eight-event gold status European tournament by several other Irish Nationals medallists, including seven runners-ups.
Listed to feature are Sutton four of BU19 runner-up Christian Dromgoole, Zoe Yeomans (GU19), John Quigley (BU15) and Eoin O’Brien (BU13) along with the Celtic duo Nathan Walsh (the BU17 finalist originally from Freshford) and Daisy Morrissey (GU13), and Mount Pleasant’s Zoë Nyhan (GU15).
There are also several bronze medallists from Cork last Sunday on the start list, including Fitzwilliam’s Frank O’Flynn (BU19), Celtic’s Adam Power (BU17), Highfield’s Maggie Jones (GU17), Sutton pair Harry Yeomans (BU15) and Saibh Darcy (GU15) and Belfast’s Josh Archer (BU13).
The action at the four-day tournament gets underway at 3pm German time, and the first two Irish players on court will be Walsh, who takes on Charles Cimino of France, and Sutton’s Vinny Knaggs against Taymor Akybaev in the BU17 qualification B quarter-finals.
They will be followed on court at 3:35pm local time by Sutton’s Advik Ajay, Irish champion Aaron Knox and O’Flynn, who are playing BU19 round of 64 matches.
Harry Knox and Dromgoole are Ireland’s highest-seeded entries for the tournament at the Sportwerk venue, with Knox named the BU13 No.1 and Dromgoole listed as a 3/4 seed in the BU17.
