Meakins takes squash silver

KAREN MEAKINS had to settle for the silver medal at the tenth biennial World Squash Federation World Masters Championships yesterday.The local and Caribbean champion lost in straight games to overwhelming favourite and former world No. 6 Sabine Schoene in the final of the women’s Over-35 age-group in Cologne, Germany.Schoene won 11-7, 11-8, 11-7 and the silver by Meakins is believed to be the first medal won by any player, male or female, from the Caribbean in the history of this event.Meakins was disappointed to lose to the 1991 world junior women’s runner-up and 17-time former German national champion, but was extremely satisfied with her overall performance in her first appearance in this age group at these World Masters Championships.“Sabine is a very good player. She hits the ball so hard and was always in control. I was behind in all three games apart from when I won the first two points in the third game,” Meakins said.“It was a good match though. I pushed her harder than anyone else in the tournament and the match was played in a great spirit.“I am disappointed to lose obviously, because I really wanted to win it for Barbados. I would just like to thank everyone from Barbados and across the Caribbean for all their support which I received via e-mail.”President of the Barbados Squash Association, Craig Archer,  acknowledged Meakins’ achievement.“Historically very few players from this hemisphere have done particularly well at the World Masters. The dominant players usually hail from Australia, New Zealand and England especially,” Archer said.