Swedish Racketlon Crushed - Again
Date: 2002-05-20
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When the Finnish racketlon elite faced the Swedish in the Finnish Open Racketlon Championships in Lahti this weekend a Finnish player came out on top - again. Just like in Gothenburg Racketlon World Open last November Mikko Kärkkäinen proved himself to be the World Racketlon no:1. Kärkkäinen beat Swedish hope Magnus Eliasson in the final by a convincing +17 points (Ba: 21-13, Tt: 21-12, Te: 21-9, Sq: 9-21).

Eliasson admitted after the match that he had been "crushed" and that he "would have to have a really good day" to have any chance against Kärkkäinen, who also benefits (in terms of future showdowns against Eliasson) from the fact that he is some ten years younger. Kärkkäinen had an easier path as he moved his way to the final while Eliasson was put up to a real challenge in the Semifinal against Roland Helle (a Swede with Finnish origins) where he came out the winner by as little as 3 or 4 points. Eliasson - who is normally not known to suffer from worries of a physical nature - suspected that this match had much to do with his right arm cramp later in the final...

Eliasson and Kärkkäinen - crushed?

The Men´s Elite class attracted 20 people, that were allocated onto 4 groups of five players. Number 1 and 2 in each group when the group play was decided were brought forward to a play-off that started out by quarter finals. See an overview of the results from this play-off (more details can be found on a finnish webpage - although finnish only)

From the perspective of the visiting Swedes the Finnish way of racketlon turned out to be a little different. Most notably the order of the individual sports were not fixed as in Sweden but randomly decided in advance. When this arrangement is compared to the Swedish rules dictating a fixed order interesting questions are raised about how one best reaches the objective of deciding the best allround racket player... Another difference was that all sets were played to 21 even if the other player reaches 20 (while Sweden has recently introduced margin-of-two (e.g. 23-21) counting).

This was the first time that the Finnish Championships opened up for players from outside Finland and a big part of the Swedish racketlon elite did take advantage of this. In fact, 5 out of 8 quarter finalists in the Men´s Elite tournament were Swedes - a fact that does indicate that, although the Finns have the best racketlon player, the Swedish elite is somewhat bigger to the number.

Finnish Open is a second landmark on the route towards the internationalization of the game of Racketlon. The first ever racketlon tournament with international participation was Gothenburg Racketlon World Open last November. Finnish Open was the second. And Racketlon.com is hereby proud to break the preliminary news that the third international racketlon competition looks set to take place in August - and promises also to be the first racketlon competition outside Scandinavia! Preliminary plans indicate that it will be held in the Next Generation Club, Monifieth - near to Dundee, Scotland over the weekend of 10-11th of August 2002. Watch this space for further news on this!

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