Draws Out for the Swedish Champs
2007-05-27
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While the attention of the international Racketlon community is focused on the Super World Tour event in Belgium, Swedish racketletes are simultaneously getting ready for the tournament of the year from a national perspective, the annual Swedish Championships in Enskede Rackethall next weekend. According to their Entry Engine this year's tournament has gathered a healthy 121 entries including most of the best ranked players; Out of the top 10 (see below) of the Swedish ranking only Adamsson (3), Persson (4) and Fagerström (7) are missing.

1 Magnus Eliasson
2 Christian Wall
(3 Stefan Adamsson)
(4 Rickard Persson)
5 Roland Helle
6 Henrik Håkansson
(7 Mathias Fagerström)
8 Mats Källberg
9 Örjan Lundberg
10 Niclas Larsson

The seedings predict the following quarterfinals to take place on Saturday afternoon:

Magnus Eliasson (SR1) - Anders Rickan (SR12)
Henrik Håkansson (SR6) - Mats Källberg (SR8)
Roland Helle (SR5) - Örjan Lundberg (SR9)
Christian Wall (SR2) - Niclas Larsson (SR10)

...a very strong field even from the international perspective. Although some of its domination from the first few years of international Racketlon at the beginning of this decade are naturally regressing as other Racketlon nations reach maturity, Sweden is still the nation with most players among the top 20 on the world ranking. At present they are 8 (see below) while Germany(!) has slowly and quietly sailed up as the number two with the following 4 frequent travellers on the tour: Schaub (5), Köpf (12), Kudicke (19) and Zwiers (20).

SWEDES AMONG THE WORLD TOP 20
1 Magnus Eliasson
10 Stefan Adamsson
11 Rickard Persson
13 Christian Wall
14 Johan Porsborn
16 Mats Källberg
17 Henrik Håkansson
18 Roland Helle

NUMBER OF PLAYERS AMONG THE WORLD TOP 20
Sweden 8
Germany 4
Austria 3
England 2
Scotland 1
Finland 1
Canada 1

Full draws for the Swedish Champs are, since Friday, available on the tournament homepage. Here are also some rarely published statistics listing all Swedish Racketlon Champions since the beginning of time. All championships have been played in Enskede Rackethall in Stockholm.

MEN
1989: Rolf Nyqvist
1990: Peter Bittár
1991: Peter Landberg
1992: Peter Bittár
1993: Peter Bittár
1994: Peter Bittár
1995: Peter Landberg
1996: Peter Bittár
1997: Mikael Bjelkedal
1998: Pär Carleke
1999: Peter Bittár
2000: Magnus Eliasson
2001: Magnus Eliasson
2002: Magnus Eliasson
2003: Stefan Adamsson
2004: Magnus Eliasson
2005: Magnus Eliasson
2006: Magnus Eliasson

LADIES
1992: Johanna Winblad
1993: Kristina Dahl
1994: Malin Andersson
1995: Malin Andersson
1996: Johanna Winblad
1997: Susanna Karlsson
1998: Marina Finth
1999: Lilian Druve
2000: Lilian Druve
2001: Lilian Druve
2002: Lilian Druve
2003: Lilian Druve
2004: Lilian Druve
2005: Lilian Druve
2006: Linda Jansson

VETERANS
1995: Jan Stålberg
1996: Per-Olof Wikberg
1997: Olle Benéus
1998: Olle Benéus
1999: Jan Stålberg
2000: Olle Benéus
2001: Olle Benéus
2002: Olle Benéus
2003: Staffan Myrdal
2004: Pär Carleke
2005: Olle Benéus
2006: Peter Bittár

JUNIORS U20; as of 2005 U21
1995: Mattias Kempe-Bergman
1996: Torbjörn Zetterholm
1997: Anders Carlsson
1998: Johan Rönnblom
1999: Örjan Bergholm
2000: -
2001: -
2002: -
2003: -
2004: -
2005: Elias Efvergren
2006: Alexander Ebata

(a hypen "-" above indicates that no competition took place)

Thanks to Lennart Eklundh for his help with the compilation!

/H

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