Momen, Raneem make Guinness World Record as squash world champions

Guinness World Records, the ultimate global authority on record-breaking awarded Tarek Momen and Raneem El Welily for being the first married couple to become the squash world champions.

The duo – who tied the knot in 2014 – defied the odds to defeat their higher-ranked opponents to secure the squash world champions awards.

Momen, aged 32, has bagged the 2019-20 Professional Squash Association (PSA) Men’s World Champion trophy in November 2019, seeing off New Zealand’s Paul Coll, World No.5. While, the Alexandria-born Raneem El Welily, aged 31, was the 2017 Women’s World Open Squash Champion, and she is the woman who ended Nicol David’s unprecedented nine-year run as the uninterrupted World No.1 by topping the September 2015 PSA Women’s world rankings – becoming the first Egyptian female star in any sport to be crowned No.1.

The story goes back to the annual club squash tournament held in Gezira Island, Cairo, in 1997. The nine-year-old schoolboy Momen was enjoying challenging beginnings, since his footballer father and tennis-player mother brought him into squash. That day in 1997 was turning point in Momen’s life as it witnessed the first meeting with eight-year-old schoolgirl Raneem, whom together found success and, most delightedly, love on the courts of squash, worldwide.

The current top four men in the world rankings are Egyptian, and six more are in the top 20. Since 2003, an Egyptian has won the men’s world championship 10 times.

Similarly, despite the fact that only few Egyptian women played the game at the turn of the century, all four of the top female squash players are Egyptian. This dominance is impressive as reinforcements are on the way, too. The girls’ junior national team has won the world championship seven years running.

It is no wonder that The New York Times has recently published an article questioning ‘If there is something in the Nile?’, that is making the North African country dominating squash, describing it as ‘one of the most compelling mysteries in sports’.

Replying to a query from the Guinness World Records about the mystery of Egyptian players’ global excellence in squash since the 90s, Momen said: “There are many theories, but I can tell you that Egypt’s squash hegemony offers lessons in how any country can compete in any individual sport, with the right combination of history, culture and geography.”

“Egypt dearest in the 90s was Ahmed Barada. The man who is renowned for his cat-like quality on court, had raised not only my parents hopes, but also the entire nation’s, to become the first wild card player ever to reach the final, in Cairo, of a PSA-sanctioned event,” added Momen.

Bringing him into squash, little did Momen’s parents know that their son will follow the steps of the nation’s pride Barada, the man who brought his country glory in almost every occasion, including that of the winning Egyptian team in the Men’s World Team Squash Championships held in Cairo in 1999.  Momen confirmed that there was no chance that his parent ever thought for him to go this far, but their hopes escalated over the years, with elite number of quality players star on global courts, including Karim Darwish, Amr Shabana and Ramy Ashour.

“It was that breakout performances by a 19-year-old Barada that started the craze. Academies here host massive number of enthusiasts aged 5 to 10. I can honestly tell you that there are enough talents in these academies that could dominate squash for the next 20 years!,” he elaborated.

“It is passion for sure, no question about it. Paving your way to the top is never easy. Raneem and I, for instance, would have never made it to smash a Guinness World Records title without passion. Achievement are always rewarding, it is not only that we broke the world-record, but also made glory by becoming the first, so no one else is to break that record anytime in future.”

Speaking about his best moment in this 24-year journey, his words showed some hesitation, and then said: “When I hugged my wife following the world cup win.”