Belgium Challenges the Racketlon Community
Date: 2003-05-01
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The organizer behind the yearly Belgian King of Rackets tournament held in Oudenaarde in central Belgium invites players from the racketlon community by offering 4 wildcards for the final next weekend (Saturday 10. May). Competition is quite fierce for the 16 positions in the final - so the offer is only open to players among the top 30 of the Racketlon World Ranking and the top 20 of the Swedish Ranking.

To apply for a wildcard, send an e-mail to the wildcard coordinator Gert Peersman (gert.peersman@rug.ac.be) with a copy to the organizer (jan@recrean.be).

This is a great opportunity for a clash between two quite mature European multi-racket communities between which there has been very little exchange sofar. Indeed, the racketlon community was totally unaware of the King of Rackets tradition until two Belgian's took part in the British Open (see report) only a few weeks ago. The strengths of the two communities were subjected to a first comparison as former (1997 and 1999) King of Rackets winner Luc Van Bogaert was put up against Racketlon World Champion Magnus Eliasson in the second round. Eliasson won fairly easily (+25) but rumour has it that there are stronger players waiting in Belgium for the racketlon players that accept the wildcards. In last year's tournament Van Bogaert ended up number 7 out of the 8 players that then took part in the final...

The King of Rackets tournament starts out this weekend, already, with qualification rounds in which no less than 140 players take part. 12 of these 140 will qualify for the final, where they thus will face another 4 wildcard players. These 16 finalists will all take part in 4 separate knock-out tournaments, one in each sport. Best of three games. Straight counting. The first two games are played to 11. If a third game is needed it is played to 7. All points won accumulate and the winner - the King of Rackets - will be the one with most points in total after all matches have been played.

Look under EVENTS on the www.racketlon.com startpage for more details on the King of Rackets event.

At the moment six different European multi-racket traditions are known to racketlon.com all of which can be traced back over 10 years in time. Racketlon have long been played in three countries: Sweden, Finland and Austria. The French multi-racket game is called Championnat des quatre racquettes. The Germans have their 4 or 5-Schläger-Turniere or Racket-Triathlon. And, now, the Belgian King of Rackets tradition has thus been discovered.

Next chance for racketletes to challenge one of the other traditions will be in mid June when the 4-Schläger tournament in Solingen, Germany, will take place. Look under EVENTS on the www.racketlon.com startpage for more details!

Players from any of the other multi-racket traditions are, of course, most welcome to try their luck in the Racketlon World Championships that will be held in Gothenburg, Sweden, during the first weekend of November. It was in Gothenburg it all started, in the sense that this is where the first international Racketlon competition was held in November 2001. That was the first in a series of events that have now lead to the creation of the 2003 IRF Racketlon World Tour of eight tournaments in six European countries. For more information on each of the tournaments on the tour, please refer to the EVENTS heading of the www.racketlon.com startpage.

All you really need to know to book your tickets to Belgium

Timing for the final
Saturday 10 May. It starts at 9 a.m., and ends around 7 p.m. after which there is a barbeque and reception (optional). Everybody plays between 2 and 4 matches in each sport.

Address of the sport center
Eindrieskaai 26
9700 Oudenaarde
Tel: +32-55-319300

Transportation
Depends on where you are coming from. You can come by plane or by fast train (France, Germany or London). The sports center is a bit more than 1 hour from Brussels, or 0.5 hours from Gent (a very nice city to visit; very similar to Bruges). Gent is the 3rd city of Belgium, half an hour from Brussels. If players can get to Gent, they can be picked up by car by the locals.

Accomodation
It might be possible to stay over night in the sport center. Alternatively, players can stay at a hotel or youth hostel in Gent from where they can be picked up by car by the locals.

For more details send an e-mail to Gert Peersman (gert.peersman@rug.ac.be) who has promised to coordinate.

The maps below show where the sportcenter is located (increasing scale). As seen it is about 50 km away from Brussels.

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