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September
The Canadian Racketlon Association (CRA) has just been legally formed. The details of the board of directors
and recent reforms will be posted soon.
In other news, Winnipeg and Calgary have shown great interest in adding Racketlon events to the tour. It appears
Racketlon is growing by leaps and bounds yet again. In addition, a tournament in Granby will be held also with more
details to follow on that. Keep you posted!
Aug. 23/24 - 2008 Ottawa Tri-Racketlon
This year's event ran into a hitch before it even began. The RA Centre removed their tennis courts in early summer, so
it was decided to hold a 3-sport tourny with only table tennis, badminton, and squash. (A "Tri-Racketlon", if you will.) While
the lack of tennis brought the number of participants down from last year, the number of cities represented was still strong.
Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto brought forth their contenders, and added to mix were players from Granby, Deep River, and Cambridge.
(Cambridge is over 5 hours drive from Ottawa - if you go at the speed limit. ;)
So, the unexpected format change brought about a slew of unexpected results. Richard Soucy, a first-timer from Granby,
took out the number 3 seed Jamie Herman of Toronto with very solid play in all three sports (Richard +10). Relative newcomer
James Rollinson from Cambridge also surprised the field by defeating the very experienced and number 2 seed Rod Bedard of
Montreal (James +9). These two then clashed in the semi-finals with Richard coming out on top of a very even match (Richard
+7). The other semi-final produced another shocker with Jeremy Easterbrook (4th seed) defeating World-Doubles number one Horatio
Pintea (1st seed) by +9. (Maybe this wasn't so much of a surprise, since Horatio's table tennis advantage was nullified by
Jeremy's skillful badminton. Jeremy then got the better of their squash game, but if tennis was included then the match could
easily have tilted in Horatio's favour.)
In the A-final, Richard captured wins in the Table Tennis and Squash, but could not make up the points needed after Jeremy's
dominance in his strongest sport, badminton (Jeremy +7).
The B-group saw the return of many faces from last year's tourny, plus highlighted some new faces to the sport. Alan
London from Toronto made a good run, but then fell in the semi-fianls to one of these talented newcomers in the form of Francis
Soucy of Montreal (Francis +13). Neil Seto of Ottawa was also a veteran of last year's event, and that experience helped him
to repel the challenge from Rob Edwards in their semi-final match (Neil +4).
In the B-final, squash dominance was not enough for Neil as Francis took the other two sports convincingly and pulled
out the victory (Francis +10).
In closing, hats off to Line Bellerose of Montreal for being the only lady to show up, and having the courage to face-off
against some of the men in the B-group (and pulling out one victory, too!).
Many thanks to Albert Wong and Alan London for helping behind the desk to make the tournament run smoothly. Thanks also
to Horatio Pintea for the table tennis gear. And a big thanks to all of this year's participants. We hope to have the tennis
back again next year - so see you then!
Steven Mikovich
Tournament Organizer
February 2008
The new year has dawned on us and so has a new and exiciting year of Racketlon.
As we reflect on the past year, tremendous growth has been occuring throughout all of Canada. Each and every tournament
is growing in numbers every year. In fact, Racketlon Quebec has initiated monthly tournaments to satisfy the Racketlon
demand. It is encouraged to all Racketlon participants in the nearby area to contact Rodrigue Bedard for more information.
The first stop of this year is the famous Canadian Open held at the exclusive Badminton and Racket Club in Toronto (www.canadianracketlon.ca to enter). Last year the venue attracted participants from Sweden, Austria, Scotland and Germany. This year
the prize money has been drastically increased to attract even more countries and top level players. We hope for this
event to yield over 100 participants. Lastly, we must not forget Canada's participation in the World Championships of
2007 held in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Canada's Alan London and Dharshanna Fernando participated in Men's D. Jamie
Herman participated in U21 and Men's B. Piumika Fernando participated in the U16 category and placed FIRST! Congratulations
to Piumika as this is great step in the right direction in putting Canada on the map in Racketlon strength. The 2008
World Championships will be held in Germany, where Horatio Pintea, Canada's top Over 45 player vows to compete for the world
title. Horatio has already competed internationally and proved to beat some of the best. Here's to a fun and new
year of exciting Racketlon!
Please note that the Pacific Rim Open will be held again in lovely Victoria,
BC. Please visit www.pacificrimopen.com for entry details! - Results have been posted on their website
August
Aug.11/12 - Ottawa RAcketlon
The action was relentless at the RA Centre
in Ottawa, Canada for the 3rd annual Ottawa RAcketlon. Over 40 players participated this year (twice the number from last
year) and came from the Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto areas. Again, there were many new faces eager to try their hand at this
unusual sport, and a number of them surprised the rest of the field with their athleticism and well-roundedness.
Jon
Madruga from Guelph was one of those standouts in the Men's A. After wins over Steve Mikovich (+12) and Mike Fedryk (+1 -
Mike seems to always have really close matches :), Jon faced the number 1 seed Stephane Cadieux. Table tennis was fairly even
with Jon getting the upper hand, and Jon's excellent squash nullified Stephane's badminton advantage. In the end, Stephane
proved his mettle in the tennis by making up the lost table tennis points and more - coming out +9 (16-21, 21-6, 5-21, 21-6).
Despite the score, Jon is a very skilled badminton player and it should not take him long to re-hone those skills and make
him a top level Racketlon player.
Sean James from Ottawa is another new star on the horizon. He defeated Martin Marion
(+11) and the number 3 seed Rod Bedard (+18). Earlier this year Martin Marion lost to Stephane Cadieux by only 4 in Montreal.
Sean then faced table tennis master and number 2 seed Horatio Pintea. With Sean's strengths being squash and tennis, it seemed
the match would hinge on the badminton. Sean rocketed to a 7-1 lead in the badminton, but then he seemed to falter just as
Horatio found his rhythm, and the game completely turned around with Horatio winning 21-9. Horatio was able to get the tennis
points he needed to clinch the match quite early (+19), but if Sean had a few more points on the badminton I'm sure their
tennis match would have been a very interesting one (21-1, 21-9, 6-21, 6-4).
The final between Horatio and Stephane
could not have started better for Horatio. He took a 21-0 lead after the table tennis. However, he was never able to break
through Stephane's defences in any of the other sports, resulting in a victory for Staphane Cadieux by +10 (0-21, 21-11, 21-9,
21-12).
The theme of athleticism continued in the Men's B division. Lee Turcotte made quite an impression with his
1-meter jump smashes from the backline on the badminton court. He lost in the semis to Nicolas Grenapin (+16). James Dye took
advantage of his incredible fitness to make it to the finals - I hear he can climb the CN Tower (553m, 1776 steps) in 15 minutes!
In the end it was Nicolas Grenapin's solid badminton and squash skills that won the day for him at +23 (11-21, 21-6, 21-10,
21-14).
In the Men's C division, Ed Smit, Paul Poirier, and Stan Singh rose to the top of their respective houses to
be pitted against one-another. Unfortunately, a prior commitment forced Paul to leave early before all their matches could
be finished. Ed Smit defeated Paul by +7, and Stan by +5 to become the C-winner.
The ladies division brought another
new face into the limelight. Liz Fedryk (Toronto) defeated all comers to eventually face number 1 seed Ghislaine Abran (Montreal).
While the tennis was even, Liz was very strong in the badminton and squash, which made up for Ghislaine's domination of the
table tennis. Liz won the final by +13 (3-21, 21-7, 21-1, 18-21).
I would like to thank everyone who participated.
Special thanks goes to Sandyha Singh and Albert Wong for helping make the tournament run smoothly. And to Sean James for supplying
the great shirts! See you again next year :)
Steven Mikovich - Tournament Organizer
July
Lavishing Laval Shows Strong Racketlon
2007-05-07
_________________
Jamie Herman, one of Canada's biggest Racketlon enthusiasts and the coordinator
of the Canadian Racketlon Tour (see homepage) reports below from "Le Championnat Multisports de Racketlon" (also known as
"The Multisports Open Racketlon Championships") that was held in Montreal (or, to be precise, in the city of Laval in the
"Greater Montreal Area") over the weekend. It has to be considered a major breakthrough for Racketlon since it was the first
Racketlon event (as known to Racketlon.com) in a French-speaking area in the second largest French-speaking city in the world!
Only Paris is bigger.
_________________
The weekend in Montreal had beautiful weather with a bright sun and clear blue
skies. An excellent compliment to a wonderful weekend of Racketlon. This challenger event in Montreal proved to be a great
success with exactly 60 entries and action packed matches. The facilities at the Carrefour Multisports centre were beyond
anyone’s expectations with only the finest racket facilities. Even Horatio Pintea (former Canadian Olympic table tennis
player) was pleased with the quality of table tennis tables used for the tournament which was recently bought by the sports
centre.
The challenger event attracted some big names in the Elite Draw. A few to mention
are Stephane Cadieux (Badminton Specialist from Toronto), Horatio Pintea (Table Tennis Specialist from Ottawa) and Alexis
Charpentier (Tennis Specialist from Montreal). The variety of high quality skill levels added to the excitement if this event
since it appeared that the winner could essentially go to anyone. Not to mention the list of unknown players in the A draw
who had never competed before which added even more kick to the draw.
For the Men’s A draw the real action began in the semi-finals between Stephane
Cadieux and Gary Helmkay (Badminton Specialist and former O45 Canadian Champion). Stephane began by giving Gary some trouble
in table tennis with his new racket provided by Canadian Racketlon Tour Coordinator, Jamie Herman. This racket contained a
basic red rubber on the forehand side but tricky medium pips on the backhand side to make any table tennis player feel uneasy.
It gave Stephane that slight advantage he needed to beat Gary 21-14 in table tennis. This brings us to the most interesting
part of the match with two badminton specialists. Stephane began the match with his typical technique of low fast clears to
get you out of position. This also punishes you for not being in a ready position and keeping you racket up. Even the experienced
Gary could not forsee this tactics letting Stephane walk over him by a 21-4 defeat in badminton, a sport which Gary himself
rarely lets many get over 8! Down by much and given Stephane’s strong squash and tennis background, Gary was in trouble.
Stephane won the squash 21-13 making it unnecessary to play tennis. The most interesting and critical part of this match to
watch was the badminton since it was a good opportunity to see the true difference between the different skill levels. Many
learned a lesson or two by watching this match.
The other semi-final was between Horatio Pintea and Alexis Charpentier.
The first time Alexis played Horatio was at the Canadian tour event in Ottawa last autumn. Then Horatio strongly defeated
Alexis in table tennis and badminton while Alexis made full advantage of his tennis keeping Horatio at 7. At their second
meeting at the Canadian Open this past March, Alexis took revenge on Horatio by defeating him by a +6 margin in the consolation
final, the difference this time was that Alexis defeated Horatio in badminton. This background meant that much interest was
focused on their third encounter. The match began strong for Horatio beating Alexis in his weakest sport 21-1.
Next came the most crucial part of the match, badminton, since in the previous
encounters the winner of the badminton was also going to be the winner of the whole match. Alexis and Horatio fought some
very long and grueling rallies making the match difficult and tiring for both of them. Alexis came out on top by winning 21-15
and the match was still uncertain at this point. Squash gave more insight into the final result. Horatio have begun playing
squash a few times a week after the last Canadian Open but nevertheless Alexis stole the show by winning 21-11 in squash.
This meant that Horatio was only up +4 going into Tennis which was not very favourable for him. Today was a special day though
and the gods were smiling on Horatio as he shocked the audience by defeating Alexis in tennis 21-13. Everyone watched in awe
as Horatio played such incredible points against a tennis specialist who is seen as almost flawless. In fact, Alexis beat
Richard Thomson is tennis at the Canadian Open to illustrate how strong he is. Horatio was a regular André Agassi and generated
long deep balls and quick paced rallies. He made very many perfect passing shots and played possibly to a level he has not
played at before. With such a thing happening in tennis, it is exciting to see how this Racketlon match played out. It left
Horatio Pintea and Stephane Cadieux to play in the finals. Gary Helmkay defaulted his ¾ match giving Alexis 3rd place in the
A flight with some prize money.
The finals proved to be very interesting since Horatio has greatly improved his badminton,
squash and tennis since he last played Stephane. These were all aspects Horatio needed to improve in order to have a fighting
chance against Stephane. Horatio quickly made advantage of his strong sport by defeating Stephane 21-4 in table tennis. He
mentioned before the match began that the medium pips which were going to be used to trick him would fail and it did. It was
going to be interesting at badminton since Horatio greatly improved it since they last played. Stephane was shocked by the
first half after having had to give up as many as 7 points to Horatio. However, after that Stephane didn’t budge and
won 10 straight points giving him a 21-7 win. Horatio was not pleased with this result but moved onto squash. In the squash
game the score was 11-10 for Stephane at the break point, at which time Stephane changed his strategy and pulled the same
move as he did in badminton by getting 10 straight points; 21-10 and a +8 lead going into tennis. Horatio's impressive play
earlier that day in tennis was surely to send shivers down Stephane’s spine. But Stephane has a very solid tennis background
and was able to overcome Horatio by defeating him 14-5 giving him an overall win by +17.
Some notes to mention in Women’s A finals that Shona Kerr (former Canadian
Open Women’s A Champion hailing from the USA) placed first, Kathy Cowper (Quebec) placed second and Line Bellerose (Quebec)
placed third. The Men’s B final was a victory for Jamie Herman (Toronto) over Geoff Miller (Toronto). The winner of
the final round robin in the Men’s C Category went to local Marc Gentile. Horatio Pintea (Ottawa) defeated Gary Helmkay
(Toronto) in the O45 final which retains his title as the reigning Canadian number 1. The U21 event resulted in a draw between
Jamie Herman (Toronto) and Jeremy Easterbrook (Quebec) since the final could not be played by any of the participants. Lastly,
a special mention goes out to the match between Stephane Cadeiux - Martin Marion (Ottawa) +3. A very small margin.We should
expect to see Martin Marion’s name in the near future as a top Canadian A player. Also, the first match of the day in
the C category resulted in a gummiarm win for David Liu. It is rare that the first match results in a gummiarm. Otherwise
a special thanks goes out to Rodrigue Bédard, Christian Foisy and all of the volunteers at the Carrefour Multisports Centre.
The tournament ran smoothly and was well organised. It is believed that it will expand for next year since the newcomers from
Québec really enjoyed the tournament and will likely spread the word about it for next year.
Wishing everyone all the best.
Results in Summary:
MEN'S ELITE
Quarterfinals:
Stephane Cadieux (WR22) - Martin Marion (WR-)
+4
Gary Helmkay (WR-) - Rod Bédard (WR35) +5
Alexis Charpentier (WR44) - Stéphane Beaumont (WR-) +32
Horatio Pintea
(WR27) - Dany Lessard (WR-) +43
Semifinals:
Cadieux - Helmkay +32 (tt:21-14 ba:21-4 sq:21-13 te:-)
Pintea - Charpentier
+10 (21-2, 15-21, 11-21, 21-14)
Final:
Cadieux - Pintea +17 (4-21, 21-7, 21-10, 14-5)
LADIES' ELITE
Final round (round robin)
Kerr - Bellerose +15
Kerr
- Cowper +20
Cowper - Bellerose +14
Winner: Shona Kerr (ENG, WR21)
2nd: Kathy Cowper (WR-)
3rd: Line Bellerose
(WR-)
For complete results and photographs, see http://www.racketlon.com/newmont07.rep.html
June
Racketlon in Canada
is building popularity as Ottawa’s second annual “RAcketlon Ottawa
Open” takes place on August 11-12. We can expect a bigger turnout this
year since Montreal’s first tournament left many of their competitors eager
for another tournament. As usual this tournament will attract people from Toronto,
Ottawa and Montreal. A battle between the cities. Toronto’s
top may include Richard Thomson and Stephane Cadieux. We also cannot forget the
ex-Olympic table tennis player Horatio Pintea playing for Ottawa and is always
secretly improving himself in the other sports all the time. From Montreal
we have Alexis Charpentier and Rodrigue Bedard. It is expected that all of these
people will be in attendance and putting up a good show for everyone as the competition between them is fierce. In Montreal, the results came as 1. Stephane Cadieux (Toronto);
2. Horatio Pintea (Ottawa); 3. Alexis Charpentier (Montreal). It can go any way so I wouldn’t want to miss out on another exciting Canadian
Racketlon event with specialists of all sorts in the mix. Not to mention, their
introductory U21 category which may bring out Canada’s top juniors, Jamie Herman (planning to be the first Canadian
junior in the World Championships of Racketlon this winter) and Jeremy Easterbrook (national badminton player – watch
out Alistair Hogg). Nonetheless, there may always be new faces, but lots
of good times to be had. I look forward to this year’s tournament and surely
it will continue to be a healthy and successful tournament aboard the Canadian Racketlon Tour.
-
Jamie Herman (Canadian Racketlon Tour Coordinator)http://racketlon.i2.ca/otta07/entries.php
May
The Montreal tournament was a complete success. The winners of tournament can be found on the main tournament
website. Due to savings of time, the rankings will be updated upon the completion of the Ottawa tournament. Thanks
for your cooperation and let's hope to see a great turnout in Ottawa!
March
The Canadian Open was a great success. A special thanks goes off to Stephane Cadieux for organizing
such an incredible tournament. It was a special treat this year to see 5 people from the top 20 in the world to play
against each other in the Elite division. Not too mention, a lot of strong new Canadian names which have entered all
draws. The number of Canadian participants in Racketlon has almost doubles since this tournament. It is hoped
that this year's competitors had a great time at the event and will spread the word to make the event even more popular for
next year. I am sure everyone cannot wait until next years Canadian Open. Do not fret, there is a challenger coming
up in early May. We hope to get as many international players and out of province players to this event as possible.
If you want more details about this event you can find out more information in February's link to its website. Lets make
Ontario have a big voice. Also, special racketlon competitors shirts are currently being looked into so that you
can represent your country or province in style. The new updated rankings have been completed and some radical changes
have been made due to increase in strong new Canadian competitors.
February
The Canadian Open is fast approaching. Prepare yourselves well since the competition this year
looks very strong in the A's with World's #1 Magnus Eliasson coming from Sweden to play. Not too mention a strong B
and C categories as usual. This year's tournament is expected to be the biggest it has been since the first tournament
was held four years ago with entries from countries such as England, Wales, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and the United States.
The information on the upcoming challenger event being held in Québec has now just been posted. Please see the "Activities"
section for more detail and a poster. Translated copies will be put up shortly, but you can contact their tournament
coordinator for more information. This event is an official challenger event and goes towards your world rankings.
The prize allocations are $700 in total plus equipment, so expect to see some big names!
Please see http://www.carrefourmultisports.com/pages/ActivitesSportives/racketlon-english-version.aspx for a direct link. For a link for entry into this event see http://racketlon.i2.ca/mont07/entries.php. Hope to see you all there!
December-January
Train hard for the upcoming 2007 Canada Open (March 9-11) and the 2007 Montreal Open in May.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Let's hope the the 2007 Canadian Racketlon Tour is even better than the
2006 Tour.
November
This just in! Horatio Pintea competed in two international racketlon tournaments and completed them
with great success. He first competed in the Wilson Bavarian Open which took place in Germany. He placed
first in this tournament in the Elite division. Following the Bavarian Open, Horatio played in the 2006 Austrian Open.
He competed in the Elite draw where he fought hard losing to Rickard Persson (WR #7) and ended up ranking 9th out of all the
competitors in the Elite draw. Horatio did defeat two other opponents in the Elite draw to give him the 9th position
which will greatly increase his international racketlon ranking. Along with Horatio's strong win at the 2006 RA
Ottawa Open, it will be nice to see if he is ready to taken on Richard Thomson at the 2007 Canadian Open this year.
In addition to this, there is word that the former world ranked number one squash player, Jonathan Powers may be competing
in this year's Canadian Open. Some international fan favourites such as John O' Donnell and Magnus Eliasson are expected
to be there this year. So don't miss the 2007 Canadian Open (March 9-11 with over $3000 in prize money)! Following
the Canadian Open will be Montreal's long awaited first racketlon event (in May) run by top Canadian racketlon player Rod
Bedard and his friend Christian Foisy. At this event, it will be the first Canadian tournament with a special
event just for juniors.
October
The results from the Pacific Rim Open can be found at www.pacificrimopen.com. The rankings list has been updated to take into account these results. A special thanks goes to Dean Gillis
for organizing such a spectacular tournament.
August
The results of the 2006 RA Ottawa Open can be seen below. Congratulations to Horatio Pintea
for winning the tourmament. A special thanks goes to Steven Mikovich for organizing a wonderful tourmament. Another
thanks goes out to all the competitors who made the tournament such a great success.
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