England won the men’s and women’s titles in stunning style at the 2025 European Team Squash Championships in Wroclaw, Poland.
The men’s team took the European title for the fifth year in a row, and 45th overall, once again consigning France to the runners-up position with a 3-1 victory. For the third year in succession, Switzerland won bronze, this time after a 4-0 win over Germany.
The women reclaimed the title from last year’s champions Belgium thanks to a 2-1 victory sealed by a superb performance by Jasmine Hutton against world no.13 Nele Gilis-Coll. France were bronze medallists after defeating Scotland 2-0.
For England’s men, sensational 19-year-old debutant Jonah Bryant and world no.33 Curtis Malik were unbeaten all week. It was 25-year-old Malik who set the ball rolling in the final courtesy of a 7-11 11-5 11-2 17-15 win over Auguste Dussord in an occasionally fractious encounter.
Mohamed then faced Victor Crouin in a rematch from last year’s tempestuous duel in Uster. World no.15 Crouin hit back from losing the first to go 2/1 ahead, but former world no.1 ElShorbagy found an extra gear in the fourth to level it up at 2-2. Crouin played terrifically in the decider to take it 7-11 11-6 11-5 4-11 11-6 and level the match.
Bryant then displayed his thrilling movement, racket work and retrieval skills in a 11-4 11-5 3-11 11-8 triumph against Baptiste Masotti, putting England 8-5 ahead in games and meaning Marwan only need to win a single game to clinch the title, which he duly did 11-9 against Gregoire Marche.
Bryant said: “I definitely learned a lot in the first few days playing the lower-ranked teams in the pool stages and I think I peaked for the final. We’ll have a nice celebration now, but not too much as we have the World Championships next week.”
England’s women earlier wrestled the trophy back from Belgium and, just as in Helsinki two years ago, Jasmine Hutton was England’s match-clinching hero on the anchor leg.
Firstly, no.1 Georgina Kennedy was defeated by her close friend Tinne Gilis in a 64-minute epic opener. The 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist dug in to win the second game 11-8 after losing the first, but the third slipped away 11-6 and Gilis saved two game balls against her in the fourth to seal it 11-6 8-11 11-6 14-12.
Sarah Jane Perry, making her 100th appearance for her country, soon equalised for England via an 11-6 11-6 11-0 victory over teenager Chloé Crabbé in only 19 minutes.
In a tension-racked finale, Hutton won two very tight opening games on tiebreaks. The third also went deep, and some phenomenal retrieval toward the end from Belgium’s world no.13 sealed it 11-9 to cut Hutton’s lead in half.
The fourth disappeared rapidly for Hutton as errors crept in and suddenly we were into a decider. Crucially, Hutton seized an early 3-0 lead and Gilis-Coll couldn’t get a foothold thereafter.
Hutton’s 12-10 12-10 9-11 3-11 11-6 win was sealed with a Gilis-Coll error and England’s Brighton-born star took a few moments at the tin to let the achievement sink in.
Hutton described the experience as “torture!” She added: “Nele is an incredible athlete but she’s also a master fighter. Even though I went 2/0 up I knew it was still going to be a massive dogfight at that point. She made it so tough.”
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Asked to rank the match among her all-time performances, she said: “Joint top with Helsinki a few years ago. That was my second Europeans and it felt like I won it for the team [by playing the decider] so this is up there with my career highlights.”
Ireland and Israel were the teams relegated from men’s Division 1, while Finland and Demark went down from women’s Division 1.
Dutch double: Read our round-up of all the week’s action in Division 2 here
Check all the results from the 2025 ESF European Team Squash Championships here
Watch the 2025 European Team Squash Championships back on European Squash TV
