Canadian and Czech Open Gearing Up
2005-01-13
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As the Racketlon world anticipates a Swedish Open of almost record size (151 players) this weekend, preparations for the following tour events in Toronto (11-13 March) and Prague (15-17 April) are heating up. The Canadian Open website is expected to be available within the next week (stay tuned to the Events section of this website) while Czech Open launched theirs earlier this week ( see link at www.racketlon.at ). (Editor' note, 2005-01-20: The Canadian Open website is now available on www.racketlon.ca. Enter on-line today! And get your cheap flight from Europe on www.cheapflights.co.uk)

The Canadian Open will, like last year, be held at the stylish Toronto Badminton & Racket Club but there will be a new tournament director since last year's John O'Donnell has now left Toronto to go back home to England. This year Stephane Cadieux is taking over and, given his rich organising experience and widespread contact network both in the French (Quebec) part of Canada (where he grew up) and in Toronto (where he has spent many years as a badminton coach), it is anticipated that Canadian Open will attract at least as many players as last year's tournament, which, in fact, attracted an unexpectedly high number (see report).

The Chech republic is the only new nation on the tour map this year and is bound to attract many international racketletes - an obvious conclusion considering that most people on the tour are pioneers anyway. A quick look at the tournament homepage reveals that this tournament will be the first tour event to test the new shorter serve games (2 serves instead of 5). After a vote on the issue the IRF now recommends tour events to test this. When at least three tour events have tested it another vote will follow as to whether to incorporate the new rule into the official rules. In addition tournament management have (in line with the 2005 IRF Tour policy of "Rules Flexibility") decided to deviate from the official rules of the IRF in a couple of other ways:

- The order of play will be Tabletennis, Badminton, Squash and Tennis (in accordance with another official IRF test period).
- The length of the breaks have been modified somewhat so that only 2+3 minutes is allowed between sets and 30 seconds at 11 (the official rules prescribe 3+3 and 1minute respectively)

Another innovation is the Mixed Doubles class, which is has never been run at a tour event before. Even the Men's Doubles class is a bit of a novelty since it has only been run at the tour events in London so-far. Read more about it in the article below (in excerpt from the Tournament Homepage):

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Premier: Mixed Doubles at Czech Open 2005
The only new tournament on the IRF Racketlon World Tour 2005 is the Czech Open from 15th to 17th April in Prague and thus not to miss. And for the first time ever a Mixed Doubles competition is on its way. "It will be interesting to see which couples form", says co-organiser Chistoph Krenn who took on the idea after the successful test at the Austrian Championships 2004....

For the full article, see the Czech Open tournament homepage.

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