CSB - Joelle King - NZ Squash Open

Squash player Joelle King has become the first-ever athlete to win 11 New Zealand Squash Championship titles, breaking legend Dame Susan Devoy's 32-year-old record.

The 35-year-old came up against 18-year-old up-and-comer Ella Lash in the women's final in Tauranga this weekend.

King dropped one game before beating Lash 11-5, 7-11, 11-3, 11-8.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Whether it's gum boots or rugby boots.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
The Country Sport Breakfast has yout covered on Gold Sport,
your home of live commentary All duell. First off, congratulations
that that title beating Dame Susan Devoye ten. That means
a lot to you, doesn't it.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Absolutely? You know, I'm actually lost for words for once
in my life. I think She's got me on a
lot of titles, but this one's obviously quite special. Always
come home, always wanting to try and get this title
under my belt.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
And yeah, it's just it's been a really interesting experience
this weekend.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
It's probably the most pressure I've ever felt because I
wanted so badly to be back out on court pain free.
So it's really nice to finish the weekend on a high.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
And it's been a long time, what eight nine months
since you've been on court playing competitively.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah, the last match I actually played was the fifth
of October, so that's a long time out from elite sport.
And there's been a lot of hard yards and behind
the scenes obviously from.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Me, but a lot of people's around me. So yeah,
I'm just a little bit overwhelmed.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
It's it's quite interesting how you know, the first one
was special, but this one's special for.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
A whole lot of different reasons.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
So the ride that you've been on, I mean even
a few months ago you had you had knee surgery
as well recently.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yeah, So it started with a back pro lips desk
in my back rehab that and started training again and
tore my meniscus. So yeah, so, and I had another
personal health problem that I had term an operation for.
So two operations, two rehabs.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Feels pretty good just to be out on court and
being able to play.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
I know it's, you know, not where I want to
be obviously long term, but I think it's a pretty
good start.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Was there any stage in that nine months and you
considered saying, hey, that's probably it all hang up.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
The record, Absolutely, But I kind of always felt like
I owed it to myself that, even if it was
going to be the end, that I got to play
at least one more time, you know, the sport. Like
I said, it's given me some of my love lows,
but it's also going to be some of the biggest
highs of my career. And I think when something's taken
away from you, you realize just how much you love it,

(02:07):
And that's that's why I started playing in the first places,
because I just love the sports.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
So yeah, I'm just happy to be back.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
So what now for Joel King? Then?

Speaker 3 (02:16):
So I'm going to have a good little block of
some pre season training. The new season starts in September,
so we're going to see how it goes. You know,
who knows when you've been out for that long. I
think it's the unknown where I'm going to be, how
I'm going to come back from it, if the.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Body is going to hold up.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
But I feel pretty confident in the team around here
in New Zealand where I'm going to be doing my
off season training, that they'll put my needs first, and
I think if I got any chance at it, it's
going to be doing it from here.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Did the body hold up okay over the course of
the weekend here, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
I think mentally it just got better and better. The confidence.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
There was a few extreme movements on the knee that
it didn't hurt, but just mentally, you'll you're sort of
pre emptying something to happen, and it didn't. So I
think that's as good a place as we can be.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Can you go back in time, and remember the first
New Zealand squash title you won.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Absolutely, it's probably the one that stands out up until
this one. You know, like Susan said, it's Lawumba's first today,
you never forget your first. Mine was in Fakatane and
I beat Jacqueline in the final and she's a very
good friend of mine, so it was it was all
like a really special occasion.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
So I definitely remember the first.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Well well done again, congratulations and thank you so much king.
And she beat a young up and comer Ella Lash
in the women's final eleven five, seven, eleven eleven, three
eleven eight, and she mentioned Lawumba sheils in the men's final.
It was it was really a family showdown. The older
brother Lawamba took the honors playing his younger brother Tim

(03:48):
Were in the final and Lawumba actually winning that one
seventeen fifteen, eleven seven, eleven eight. And during his victory
speech he thanked a number of people his team, obviously
coaches and so on, and then he also thanked Paul
Cole for not showing up and coming along to play.
Otherwise Paul Cole probably would have won another title. But

(04:10):
Paul Cole decided instead of playing in the New Zealand Open,
he'd get married instead, and so she had his wedding
and the Greek Islands on the weekend as well. So
congratulations to Paul Cole. Great stuff. Loved it.