Northland juniors excel at South Island squash champs

Northland's successful young squash players, from left, Freddie Jameson, Riley-Jack Vette-Blomquist, Flynn Venmore and Annmarie Holst.

Northland's Riley-Jack Vette-Blomquist and Freddie Jameson both took out age group titles at the South Island Junior Championships at the weekend.

After a successful North Island Juniors earlier in the holidays, four of Northland's junior players headed to Dunedin to compete in the South Island Junior Age Groups.

With New Zealand's top juniors away competing at the World Junior Championships in India, it was a great opportunity for some of the juniors to challenge themselves and compete in an older age group.

Vette-Blomquist, 15, had a busy weekend, playing in the U17 and U19 age groups winning the U19 title and coming runner-up in the U17 age group.

He played Wellington's Kobe Fleming in both finals, with Fleming edging him out in the first final before Vette-Blomquist dug deep and fought back to win the U19 final.

After taking out the North Island U13 boys title a few weeks ago, Jameson, 12, also stepped up an age division and played in the U15 boys division bringing home another title. He played top seed Ryan Ko from Christchurch in a highly contested final.

Flynn Venmore was seeded fourth in the U13 boys, winning against the top seed in the semifinal to take him to the final where he only just lost in a marathon five sets against Marlborough's Chris Hebberd to place runner-up after placing third at the North Island Juniors.

Otamatea's Annmarie Holst had some comfortable wins on her way to the final in the U19 girls, playing Natalie Sayes in a close match and taking home the silver medal. Holst also placed fourth in the U19 girls division at the North Islands.

Sayes also has a Northland connection having attended primary school in Whangārei and now lives in Auckland.

■ Northland juniors made a clean sweep of the U13 boys in the North Island Age Group Juniors in the school holidays. Freddie Jameson, Cam Griffin and Flynn Venmore all from the small Manaia Squash Club were first, second and third respectively.