Gloucestershire's Nathan Lake becomes European Champion
Let me first introduce myself for those who don’t know me my name is Nathan Lake and I am a World Ranked Squash Player based at EG. This is the first in hopefully a series of blogs I will be writing to keep EG members posted on how I am getting on with life on the tour, it will include tournaments I have coming up as well as how my training schedule is going.
To give you an idea of what I have been up to and my achievements to date here is a bit about me and my squash, I have and still am a resident in Cheltenham based at EG as I have been for the last 4years working with the National Junior Coach Fiona Geaves. My time at EG has seen my career go from strength to strength, from being a chubby teenager scrapping into the Under 13s county team to becoming the King of Europe at under 19s and a professional squash player. So here we go, I am currently ranked 1 in England in the Under 19s age group, and have a World Ranking of 209 which is in the senior game. I have been fortunate enough to represent England on many occasions, including two world championships firstly in India and then last year in Ecuador (not bad venues I know) where I was chosen to Captain the team, however we sadly went out in a close fort semi final to Pakistan.
This year hasn't been bad so far either finishing up 7th in the British Junior Open (The Wimbledon of Squash), Runner Up at the British Closed and then just over a week ago becoming European Champion then being part of a winning team in the European team championships which were held in Lucerne, Switzerland. Without doubt the greatest two weeks I have ever spent near a squash court, having gone the whole individual and team event without dropping a game.
However there was no time to let it sink in just yet after returning home I was straight back into training before being back at the airport a few days later this time off to Egypt. A daunting prospect as I not the big fish I was at the Europeans. Egypt are a bit of a super power in the world of squash and it is a notoriously hard place to go and do well. The event is a sixteen draw with players within the top 50 making an appearance. I however am in the qualifying draw which is a draw of sixteen with the top 4 players going through to the main draw. I am seeded five meaning I am not expected to qualify and I am under no ululations to how tough it will be but hopefully after success at the Europeans I will be able to carry through some of that momentum.
If you wish to ask any further questions about how my career is going you can follow me on Twitter (@nathanlake3) or email me on nathanlake3@googlemail.com. If any members feel they are in a position and would like to sponsor me in someway shape or form then please feel free to contact me on the above email address or you can contact me on 07917116012.
