The 2024 Heidelberg Materials Ontario Championships Presented by NFP Canada, was the season’s first provincial championship event! This event brought together an energized squash community, featuring exciting competition across Men’s and Women’s divisions, and doubles in the Harvest Hit tournament.
Thanks to our dedicated partners – Heidelberg Materials, the Pickering Squash Club, and NFP Canada – players enjoyed a quality tournament experience complete with a tournament top, Friday night pizza, Saturday lunch, and $4,000 in prize money for the Open divisions. The event was expertly led by Tournament Chair Nicole Pirko and the Pickering Squash Club’s team of volunteers, who made everyone feel welcome after the off-season.
A highlight of this year’s event was the Women’s Social and Seminar, supported by Heidelberg Materials. Led by Marci Sier and a panel of experienced competitors Hollie Naughton, Nadia Luttmer and Vanessa Steinwall, the seminar focused on “Competing in Squash” with a healthy discussion on battling nerves on court and staying mentally focused! The push for greater female participation in squash remains a top priority. Across sports, the gender participation gap sits at an average of 2.18 males for every 1 female. Squash has previously outperformed this average, but the gap in Ontario has widened recently to 2.50 in 2023-2024. The success of this year’s Women’s Social marks a step towards closing this gap, particularly in senior tournaments, and reflects our ongoing efforts to encourage more women to join and compete in squash.
The tournament results and photos of the champions are displayed below – congratulations to all participants on a fantastic start to the 2024/2025 squash season!
ABOUT Heidelberg materials
Heidelberg Materials is excited to be supporting Squash Ontario and is delighted to be the Title Sponsor at this year's Ontario Championships.
Heidelberg Materials is one of the world’s largest building materials companies and operates on five continents. Our products are used for the construction of houses, infrastructure, and commercial and industrial facilities, thus meeting the demands of a growing world population for housing, mobility, and economic development. To learn more about Heidelberg Materials, Please CLICK HERE.
ABOUT NFP CANADA
We are excited to share that NFP will officially partner with Squash Ontario in the 2024-2025 season as a Corporate Partner and Presenting Sponsor of the 2024 Ontario Championships. This partnership will continue to offer the 15% home and auto insurance discount to Squash Ontario members and in exchange they will be supporting our events and contributing to our Lee Hanebury Junior Squash Fund. To learn more about the discount program, please visit our Membership webpage.
Please read below for our 2024 Champions, runners-up, and 3rd place finishers.
Women’s Open, left to right: Hasti Shemirani (5th), Olivia Bolger (4th), Sasha Lee (3rd), Hollie Naughton (Champion), Niki Shemirani (2nd).
Men’s Open, left to right: Blake Reinson (2nd), Wasey Maqsood (Champion), Will Harris (3rd), Nicole Pirko (Tournament Chair).
Men’s C, left to right: Shiraz Mohideen from NFP, Scott Haynes (3rd), Marcus Lee (Champion), Sandeep Reddy Kancharla (2nd).
Women’s C, left to right: Tania Kumar (2nd), Sydney Meek (Champion), Hania El Ayoubi (3rd).
Men’s D, left to right: Shiraz Mohideen from NFP, Manoj Reddy (3rd), Anatol Sharoyan (Champion), Leon Chan (2nd).
Women’s E, left to right: Nicole Pirko (Tournament Chair), Jota Botia (2nd), Priya Vasamsetty Kaliprasad (Champion), and Ongelle-Lise Burnett (3rd).
Women’s A, left to right: Elka Markus (2nd), Vanessa Steinwall (Champion), Thandi Myers (3rd - not pictured).
Men’s B, left to right: Yianni Theodoropoulos (2nd), Erez Provizor (Champion), Rahul Godavarthi (3rd).
Women’s B, left to right: Sumintra Koowar (2nd), Alexis Pirko (Champion), Iris Capistrano (3rd).
Men’s E, left to right: Dhruvil Shah (2nd), Nathan Chan (Champion), Andrew Hyndman (3rd).
Men’s A, left to right: Arturo Guzman Franco (2nd), Usman Khan (Champion), Jack Chen (3rd).