Fram reports from Madinaty

Well, it was a bit of a busy day for the TMG organisation today at the Madinaty Golf Club, a stunning place I had never seen before, and which is, like the rest of Madinaty, huge, airy, calm, and refined in every small detail. In other words, my kind of place!

We had a Press Conference, scheduled at 3pm – well, no, of course it didn’t start on time, this is Egypt, but we had lovely soft drinks, appetisers and comfortable seats to work from – even power points, I kid you not.

And the place was packed with Press and Officials, including the son of TMG Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Mr Hisham Talaat Moustafa, Mr Omar Hisham Talaat, who is behind the whole World Championship and made it possible here in Madinaty. Also present were the Egyptian Squash Federation President, Mr Assem Khalifa, in charge of the whole project, alongside Mr William Louis-Marie, WSF CEO.

Of course, Mr Louis Marie had to answer the compulsory question “when is squash going to be in the Olympics”. WSF CEO saluted  the will of Egypt and its President to organise the Olympics in 2036, and explained the different hoops in which our sport has got to jump through, hoping for a positive result Insh’Allah (I quote) next year.

A short break and off we went to the Opening Party. Red carpet for the players, literally, each team being welcome in style, Hollywood Carpet if you please! Players seem to enjoy it and they were led to the beautiful outside display – looking pretty different during the day!

As some of you know, I’m a bit of a drama queen when it comes to attention to detail. And blimey, what a service. The food was not only delicious and copious, but the care and the attention to each and every guest was I have to say the best we ever had in such a party. Felt like royalty, me…

We had the presence of Dr Ashraf Sobhy, Minister of Youth and Sport, accompanied by WSF Vice President Karim Darwish and his wife, Engy Kheirallah, former PSA player, Egyptian Team World Champion, and now coach to the Egyptian Team.

Of course, we had the “Croatia/Brazil” drama live – oh joy – you know, the extra time and the penalty shoot, you know my luuuuve for football – then finally got back to nice music and lovely food.

We have to thank every single person that made this day possible. The TMG media team has been super efficient, Sandy and her colleagues, top class, thanks to all, Mona Fawzy and Walaa from the Federation, can’t do anything without you guys, of course Hattem Hassan and his team, the event promoter, Ziad El Shazly, who has made this start of event as perfect as possible, and not forgetting our Mary Poppins and her magical bag, Nada Hamdy, who gave each and every person invited tonight a little gold pyramid with a Patchi Milk Chocolate. No, don’t have a photo, I already ate it…

May the Games begin…

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