Chennai: Hong Kong's Leo Au and Low Wee Wern of Malaysia are the top seeds in the boys and girls section respectively in the 14th biennial Asian Junior Championships at the ICL Squash Academy here from Jan 16 to 23.
The event has attracted a total of 10 teams in the men's event and nine in the women's section, while the individual draw consists of 51 boys and 42 girls.
The field, too, looks promising. While Leo won the Asian junior Individual championships in Korea last year, second seed Ivan Yeun from Malaysia was the runner-up at the recently concluded British junior Open squash championship.
Seeded to meet them in the semi finals are Kamran Khan from Malaysia and India's No.1 Aditya Jagtap, respectively.
In the absence of defending champions Pakistan, the hot favourite in the boys team event is Malaysia. India are seeded two ahead of Hong Kong.
The girls section also has a competitive field. Following in seeds to British Open champion Wern are India No. 1 Dipika Pallikal, Tong Tsz Wing from Hong Kong and Song Sung Mi from Korea.
In the women's team event, Malaysia will start as favourites with Hong Kong seeded No.2, India at three and Korea, four.
The Individual events will be followed by the team championship.
The Asian Squash Federation (ASF) will also hold its 29th AGM and elections Jan 23. World Squash President N. Ramachandran, will step down as the ASF President after his two terms (eight years) as President.
