The Best Racketlon Tournament Ever Played!
Date: 2001-10-24
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The draw for Gothenburg Racketlon World Open has now been finalized and it takes no more than a quick look at it to see that the goal of the World Open management team will be fulfilled; This has got to be the best racketlon tournament ever played!

The overall picture is that World Open has attracted over 80 players from six different countries. Let's have a closer look at present status:

1) The Men's Elite Class looks strong...

In the end, the size of the Elite class has landed on 26 people. Among them are 9 out of 10 from the Swedish top-ten list (Stefan Larsson was unfortunately recently forced to withdraw his application due to injury):

1 Magnus Eliasson
2 Mats Källberg
3 Roland Helle
4 Peter Bittár
5 Erik Söderberg
6 Joakim Sandberg
7 Mika Hasmats
(8 Stefan Larsson)
9 Rickard Persson
10 Anders Rickan

But the winner could be someone else! We have identified four people that just might have that potential:

Toni Kemppinen (Finland's no:1)
Mikko Kärkkäinen (Finland's no:2)
Håkan Andreasson
Jens Wahlman

These four players have been given challenger status in the draw - implying that they have been positioned in a way similar to the number 5-8 seeds.

...and then there are, of course, the Surprise Stars....

2) Four Champions on the Female Side

The Ladies class features the following names:

Katja Aminoff .FI
Lilian Druve
Marina Finth
Susanna Karlsson

All of them are champions. And some of them have never played each other before. Marina won the Swedish championships in 1998. Katja won the latest Finnish championships. Susanna won the Swedish championships in 1997. Lilian has never lost a racketlon match(!) since she took up the sport with an instant Swedish championship in 1999. But she has never played against Susanna, nor Katja... Katja has not played any of the others.

And then there is a surprise entry from Germany...

3) Bulgaria Dominates the Veteran Class

The veteran class contains 7 players (and a wild card). 3 of them are from Bulgaria(!) What were the odds for that two months ago?

And the standard of the veteran class looks high as well. Three names picked at random:

Puzant Kassabian .BG
President of the Bulgarian Badminton Federation, with a successful background in tennis and table tennis. And a pioneer of squash in Bulgaria...

Harri Peltola .FI
Present Finnish champion in the 40+ class. And the first non-Swedish player, who registered for World Open.

Olle Benéus
Dominant Swedish racketlon veteran. Subscriber to the Swedish veteran champion titles. The subscription is renewed every year.

BEAT THAT!

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