Toni Kemppinen Enters World Open
Date: 2002-10-15
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Finland's World #4 Toni Kemppinen announced yesterday that he will, after all, enter World Open. (He cancelled his application a few weeks ago). This means a dramatic reinforcement of the Finnish team that looked rather weak a few days ago after team captain Hanna Miestamo announced that they were even considering using a lady in one of the men's matches. Coinciding with Kemppinen's decision to attend another Finnish racketlon virtuoso, the World's best veteran, Harri Pelto, announced that he, too, will take part in the team event. Considering, also, the team sisu that Finns are known to show the world from time to time this means that it will take quite a lot to stop them in the team event. At present the Finnish team looks as follows (M=Men; L=Laides):

M1: Mikko Kärkkäinen - World #1!
M2: Toni Kemppinen - World #4
M3: Harri Peltola - Veteran World #1
L: Susanna Näykki-Lautala - Defending Finnish champion and World #3

In theory, the only team that comes anywhere near is Sweden:

M1: Magnus Eliasson - World #2
M2: Roland Helle - World #3
M3: Mats Källberg - World #6
L: Lilian Druve - World #2

(The individual matches (M1, M2...) are meant to conatin the players in order of strength, meaning that the best male players should play the M1 match, the second best the M2 match and the third best the M3. However, the rules say that it is up to the team captain to decide which player he thinks is best at the moment. The allocation of players to individual matches (M1, M2...) shall be handed in by the team captains in writing at least 15 minutes before match start. It will not be revealed until the details of the other team has also been handed in.)

In total, four teams have entered the tournament. Finland and Sweden will be challenged by Scotland and England.

Kemppinen's decision to enter the tournament means that 8 out of 10 on the World Top 10 ranking will take part in the individual tournament. Since his entry came at a rather late stage it also means that the draw will be delayed by a couple of days. It will be published on Racketlon.com on Sunday at the latest - but hopefully a day or two before that. Tournament management apologizes for the inconvenience.

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