The Qatar Scrabble League (QSL) is eyeing the top spots in the upcoming World Youth Scrabble Championship in Malaysia with officials saying the players are showing world-class competitiveness in the ongoing endurance training games. “The kids are now doing very well in the endurance games. I am confident either one or two of them will land in the top 10 spots in the championship rounds,” said Judith Britten, QSL chairman. The QSL officials are keeping their fingers crossed that 14-year-old Jacob Sunny of MES Indian School, who participated in the Gulf Scrabble Championship for adults in Bahrain, would make it to the finals in the world tournament slated for December. “He showed a lot of intensity in his recent games and he was placed third alongside world-class adult players like Anthony Gomes and Loreta Alban,” Britten said. Britten said during last Friday’s second endurance tournament, eight QSL hopefuls, mostly from MES Indian School, had started to close their points gap with their adult mentors and they still had three months of training to go before the world event. Two players, Jacob and Pranav Karthik, have been named by QSL to be the official delegates in the Scrabble championship and officials are scouting for four more players from among those undergoing the endurance training. The League is eyeing Varun Elanguvan and a new kid on the block named Dylan, who was spotted in the Scrabble for Beginners class conducted by International Academy for Intercultural Development, as two more official QSL players for the championship. Karen Richard, who chairs the Youth Committee of World English Scrabble Players Association, has told Britten that their organisation is doing exceptionally well and could be a force to reckon with in world tournaments. “From zero to hero,” is what Richard said of the chances of QSL players in the world youth championship during a phone conversation with Britten. This will be the first time QSL is participating in the event. “Expectations of high-level performance are rising as the confidence level of the young players is going up,” Britten said. http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=August2009&file=Local_News2009083023859.xml

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