Palmer surprises with selection for national squad

It's fun and I'm good at it. I don't really miss not having any free time - I love it.Abbie PalmerCaption2Waipu  11-year-old Abbie Palmer will be keeping the older girls in check after her surprise selection for the New Zealand Junior Girls squash squad to train for the 2011 World Junior
Girls Championships.
"We thought she would be too young for the squad ... she's the youngest in the squad and the youngest ever picked," her mother Joyce Palmer explained.
The under-19 squad was chosen at the conclusion of the New Zealand Junior Squash Championships at Auckland's North Shore  this week, where Abbie Palmer, who competes under the Auckland umbrella, claimed the national under-13 title for the second year running.
Northlander Tate Matson made the NZ junior boys squad to train for the 2010 World Junior Boys Championships at Ecuador.
Matson finished ninth in the under-19 boys at nationals and is one of eight boys vying to make the final four competitors to compete in South America.
The boys and girls championships are held in alternate years, and the training squads are selected two years out.  While Matson's time to selection is counting down, Palmer still has two years up her sleeve.
This year was her first time competing in her own age group - she won the under-11 title as a seven-year-old and her first under-13 title when she was 10.
"We thought along with her coaches she should slow the train down as she can't keep playing up - once you've played up you can't play down again as you think you're going backwards."
Palmer's three set defeat  of Canterbury's Nicola Kennedy at nationals added to her successful year, where she won the under-17 Waikato District title and the Northland under-19 title.
The Bream Bay College student was obviously pleased with her inclusion in the NZ junior girls training squad, and said being the youngest did not bother her.
Palmer, who plays for Auckland, said she already trains six times a week doing running, sprint work, flexibility, swimming and of course plenty of court time under the direction of coaches - her father Nelson Palmer, former world champion Carol Owens and national high performance coach Anthony Ricketts - and while it was a tiring regime, she enjoyed it.
"It's fun and I'm good at it. I don't really miss not having any free time - I love it."
Palmer said the squad were initially meeting in November to train and they would be given programmes, which she would just add to her already busy timetable until the team is picked in mid-2011, ahead of the championships.
The next two years would be big ones for  Palmer, who turns 12 at the end of the month.
"I want to move up to A2 next year ... and I'm hoping to get into the Worlds team," she said.
Both are achievable - it took Palmer only six months to move from B2 to B1 this year, earning points for wins at tournaments, and as for her world championship aims, she just had to take a leaf out of 2009 world junior champion Nour El Sherbini's book - the Egyptian girl was only 13 years old.
"So it's not unheard of," Joyce Palmer said with a grin.
Around 20 Northland players were also in action at the national junior champs which concluded on Wednesday.