Meakins into squash final in Poland

By Morissa Lindsay

Barbados’ top female veteran’s player Karen Meakins has impressively advanced into the finals of the 2022 Betard WSF World Masters Squash Championship being played at the courts of the Hasta La Vista Club in Wrocław, Poland.

A former undisputed national women’s champion with 15 titles to her name, Meakins played superbly to claim a 3-1 victory over Sarah Parr of the United States of America in the semifinals. This would be Meakins second appearance in the final of the World Masters Squash Championship.

Meakins who competes in the Over-50s category told Barbados TODAY she is looking forward to playing against Henrieta Loksova of Slovakia which should be an entertaining battle between the two ladies commencing at 7:30 a.m. local time tomorrow.

Speaking after her semifinal match, Meakins said: “My first two matches I won comfortably. Today’s semi was a lot tougher. I won the first two games and then got nervous and dropped the third. I was happy to come through and win in four games. My goal is to go on and enjoy the match tomorrow. Play nice and aggressively and hopefully not get too nervous.”

No stranger to competing at this level, Meakins’ master’s journey commenced in 2010 in the Over-35 with a silver medal in Cologne, Germany. The championship which is held biannually also took place in 2012 but Meakins did not make the podium as she placed fourth in the Over-40s which was the same result in Hong Kong (2014) and Johannesburg, South Africa she was fifth (2016).

However, Meakins captured a bronze medal in Virginia, United States and with no competition because of the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020 she was able to show up this year and reach the final.

The talented player who has represented Barbados with pride and distinction around the world said the journey has not been easy but she continues to persevere.

“It’s been a strange year for me as I had knee surgery in January and the recovery was very slow. I almost didn’t enter the World Masters but made a last minute decision to enter the week the entries closed. So, my preparation hasn’t been as intense as usual! Honestly I’m just really happy to be playing in this tournament. Obviously winning a World title means everything to me but I’m just taking it one match at a time,” Meakins told Barbados TODAY.

It was a bittersweet day for Barbados’ top male masters’ squash player Mark Sealy who did not reach the Over-60 final but instead will play for bronze tomorrow as well. morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb