Meakins marches into quarters

Barbados squash queen and ten-time national champion Karen Meakins sustained her recent run of good form by reaching the quarter-finals of the Tenth World Squash Federation’s World Masters Championships in Cologne, Germany.Competing in her first ever World Masters event, Meakins continued her winning ways yesterday in the round of 16 in the Women’s Over-35 age group.She defeated another unseeded opponent, Henrieta Loksova of Slovakia, 11-4, 11-9, 12-10 and advanced to the quarter-finals where she will face unseeded German Iris Stockbauer today.“It was a decent match. [My opponent] was a nice player. I made a few more mistakes than I would have liked, but I’m happy to get through,” Meakins said.“Tomorrow will be a very hard match so I’ll just have to be at my best and see how it goes.”  Overall, there are more than 800 competitors in the biennial WSF World Masters Championships, with competition for both men and women in the Over-35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65 and 70 age-groups. There is also a Men’s Over-75 category. There were 28 entries in the Women’s Over-35 age group where the top seed is Germany’s former multiple national champion and world No. 6, Sabine Schoene.Meakins, arguably one of Barbados’ best ever squash players, won a silver medal in the singles and a bronze medal in the women’s team event at the 21st Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Bogota, Colombia, last month.Only last week, she claimed Barbados’ first ever gold medal in the women’s singles at the 2010 Caribbean Squash Championships in St. Vincent.She also played unbeaten in the team event to anchor Barbados to a gold medal performance in the women’s team event. (PR/EZS)