Nine Northland juniors eye titles

Abbie Palmer and Jamie Oakley from Bay of Plenty are seeded to take out the prestigious Under-19 titles at this weekend's North Island Junior Age Group Squash Championships in Wellington.

Palmer lines up in the girls' draw as she caps off preparations for this month's World Junior Girls' Championships in Eindhoven.

Standing in her way is second seed Nikki Kennedy, who will be hoping to make amends for a surprise semifinal defeat at last weekend's South Island Age Group Champs, while Ellen Verry and Tyler Duberly round out the top four seeds.

Oakley is favoured to take the boys' title, although he can probably expect a parochial crowd to be against him.

The top seed is expected to face local club member Tyler Ranger in the semifinals, and another Mitchell Cup player in Alex Revington in the final.

However, third seed Montell Whatarangi will also be hoping to be a fly in the ointment for the home crowd.

Nine Northland juniors will travel to the event, which gets underway tomorrow afternoon, with 170 of the country's top juniors taking part across the various age groups.

- Full draws available on http://www.mitchellparkjuniorsquash.co.nz