Finland catching up!

Finland and Sweden shared the major honours at this year's Racketlon World Championships held last weekend on the outskirts of the delightful city of Nürnberg. Mikko Kärkkäinen and Michaela Björnstrom took the main titles of Men's and Women's World Champion, and fellow Finn Anti Tyyskä retained his junior title. Flying the flag for Sweden was Peter Bittár (Men's over 45) and the National Team, who remained unbeaten in 7 consecutive World Championships. However, the story of this year's World Championships contains much more detail than that....

Firstly, the main events. For Michaela it was her first World Championship win, but for anyone who has seen her improve over the past few months, it won't have come as a surprise. She has one distinct advantage over the other players - regular practice available with the current (and now 5 times) world champion, and boyfriend, Kärkkäinen. In the final she took out last year's winner Martina Kakosová, winning the table tennis 21-15, which made all the difference - one year ago that score may well have been reversed. After strong badminton and especially squash performances Michaela only needed 5 in the tennis, and that was game over. It certainly seems that tennis is the strongest of the four within the women's game at the moment with tennis specialists Björnstrom, Jansson and Kakosová the best 3 women in the world. Michaela's run to the title also included an impressive win against Silke Altmann - beating the German at the middle 2 with good margins. If she continues in this form there will be no stopping her next year.

And so to the men's final. More on the earlier matches later on in this report, but as we reached the Sunday afternoon of a World Championships, did we really expect to see anyone else warming up for the table tennis other than Mikko (now 5 times winner) and Magnus (3 times winner)?

No.

There were of course hopes and chances for others, such as Adamsson and Struthers, but the sheer consistency of the two protagonists meant we had the same final as the past 3 years. It has been said time and time again, but the winner of the match between these two can always be determind by the table tennis. If Magnus gets 12 points or more, he wins. Anything less and Mikko wins. (I hope the statistics bear out this point!) On this ocassion the score was 21-6 to Mikko, 2 better than in Rotterdam last year. Mikko knows only one way to play and that is to attack, and he does it very well. Magnus is (and was) able to block one or two forehand topspins, but if you give him three or four, he struggles, and that's what happened. The Swede seemed to be very tentative on the backhand, hesitating over certain shots and losing the point as a result. There is no doubt though, that his table tennis has improved.

Onto the badminton and this was a relatively poor set, considering what both players are capable of. Magnus gave away several cheap points, only to have the favour returned by Mikko. In the end Mikko crawled to a 21-16 win and they moved onto squash. A few years ago suggestions that Mikko would beat Magnus at arguably the Swede's favourite sport would have been laughed at. But now, following earlier squash victories over O'Donnell, Struthers and Adamsson, Mikko looked the sharper and better player. He can play a patient game when it is asked of him but would much rather not. His trademark shot is the kill drive - more often than not into the nick - leaving his opponent hurriedly lurching forward as though gasping for air after a bout of Scuba Diving. Certainly on this ocassion Magnus seemed to be drowning in Mikko's attacking play and had no answer to the Finn's brilliance - for the second year in succession no tennis was needed and Mikko was once again World Champion.

I am scared.
Scared at the alarmingly high quality of the junior matches in this tournament. It was fitting that the two best juniors Tyyskä and Schubert fought out a great final (I only saw some of it and the squash was very good). The one surprise is perhaps that they didn't perform better in the Men's A, although Schubert did beat Jermaine Manners before losing to Mikko! Tyyskä lost a close match with Anders Rickan so certainly no disgrace there either. One other thing of note in the final, and throughout the event, was that neither player has a weak sport. In fact, I would struggle to tell you the order of their sports, having learnt them all from a young age they are from a generation of people whose sport is simply 'Racketlon'. The decisive discipline in this final was probably the squash, where Schubert may have expected to win, but the young Finn - who on court looks incredibly similar to Mikko - grabbed the set 22-20 to leave him needing only 11 in the tennis. I predict one of these two young players will win a tour event within the next 18 months - there, I've said it.

Arrival
12 minutes from touchdown to the airport entrance has to be some sort of record. It certainly says a lot for German efficiency and the work ethic of Nürnberg airport and Air Berlin staff, especially considering at 23.20 it was the last flight to land at the airport last Wednesday evening! This was soon followed by the arrival of a cheerful (albeit tired looking) Stefan who had arrived to take us to a town centre youth hostel, where we spent the first night. The only negative aspect was that he had brought with him Stuart Foster, for once neither drunk nor snoring. A quick beer in a bar next to the hostel then into bed, for Thursday was to be a long day...

It was bitterly cold in Nürnberg - hardly surprising as it had been bitterly cold in England when I had left - and there was a distinct frost on the fields as we approached 'Sport Park', a real 'hoare frost' as an old Englishman (well, Struthers at any rate), might, and did, say. It was time to survey the venue, very impressive certainly and similar in many ways to Rotterdam last year.

The Centre Court area was certainly of a very high level. The four courts were laid out in order, including the promised glass squash court, and were surrounded by extensive seating for all players and spectators. There was also plenty of space around the venue for a further 5 table tennis tables, 4 badminton courts, 5 squash courts and 5 tennis courts. This was supplemented by two dining areas with trade stands and plenty of open space.

Team Event
The first action seen on the centre court was the national team event - Austria and Sweden were the top seeds by virtue of individual world rankings, but as usual it turned out to be a race for second place as Sweden effortlessly made their way to the final. The top half saw more action - Finland comfortably despatched Holland with Pekka Kainulainen defeating Bart Beks at tennis to set up a meeting with England. The English got off to a great start with John O'Donnell levelling with Mikko after the first two and Doug taking a 15 point lead against Pekka into the tennis. However, Jermaine under-performed against Anti Tyyskä and Michaela had too much for Natalie, meaning the Finns won. They followed that up with another victory against Austria to set up an all-Scandinavian final the next evening, as Sweden had glided through the bottom half.

Friday saw the beginning of the singles events, and in particular the first round of the Men's A. With a 48-strong entry 16 ties were scheduled for the first morning. Players arrived for various early starts from all the different - and excellent quality - hotels. With plenty of pull-outs in Men's A the draw completely changed, resulting in some cracking matches. Surely the best ever table tennis contest took place in centre court's first match - Mats Källberg (regarded as Racketlon's best table tennis player and top Swedish competitor) against Horatio Pintea (former professional and World number 87). The author was particularly annoyed that he arrived as the two players were moving onto badminton, but the vacant table tennis scoreboard confirmed what many of us had always thought - 21-11 for Källberg cements his title as Racketlon's best pingis exponent. Rickan defeating Tyyskä, Twisterling beating Alte and a gummiarm victory for Stefan Jezler over Pekka Kainulainen were the other highlights of the morning. Unfortunately for the Swiss player, illness prevented him from challenging JOD in the next round.

The rest of the day saw in-roads made into the solid B, C and D draws for both men and women. A common complaint among players not featuring on centre court - which was the majority of players - was that the conditions were nowhere near as good and that A players received preferential treatment. A serious point that was hard to argue with. I am certainly someone who is in favour of giving responsibility to the players - they should be filling out their own scoresheet and know the state of play in their match (indeed, the sight of one Women's A match where they didn't know when in the tennis to stop and cast annoying glances towards the tennis umpire for also not knowing (!), was nothing short of pathetic). But at the same time the players need some direction over which court to play on, who is next, how long they have to wait and so on. Every player pays the same entry fee and deserves the same kind of treatment, even at a World Championships! I sometimes get the impression that A players are treated a little like professional players and spoilt somewhat...this could lead us down a dangerous path. It also creates unrealistic expectations at other tournaments who choose to treat all players fairly. However, I digress....

Weihnachtsmarkt
After a morning match and nothing else scheduled for the day, what else could an adventure seeking player do other than travel into Nürnberg to see the city and witness the first day of the legendary 'Weihnachtsmarkt'. After a short walk, bus ride and U-Bahn journey (much to the dismay of the taxi-loving Struthers) we reached the 'Hauptbahnhof', the natural starting point for anyone wishing to explore a European city. The streets were filled with stalls selling Glühwein and Lebkuchen, small wooden toys, Christmas decorations and chestnuts, so naturally we made a beeline for the nearest T-Mobile shop, in order to view the new 'google phone'. Nürnberg was, in a word, fantastic. The buildings looked fantastic, especially surrounded by so many Christmas activities and tradition-seeking tourists. There was even a small pen with a Shetland Pony and a camel - that's right a camel - for the children to touch. Not the kind of place you would spy a Homebase or TK-Max!! The Weizenbier continued to flow, along with a good helping of Wienerschnitzel before a return to the venue to watch the team event final.

Team Final
Sweden v Finland. A match for everyone to enjoy. Who would win between Magnus and Mikko? Which of the tennis players would gain the upper hand, Linda or Michaela? Was Pekka in good enough form to upset Stefan? Could young Anti take Christian? All of these questions were answered, unfortunately, after about an hour of waiting after the players began to warm up. It was a classic case of a tournament and organisers trying to run before they could walk. For some crazy reason the third place play-off had to be completely finished before the final could be started (?). The centre badminton court was unused for approximately one hour - as I walked past a couple of veteran players one of them mentioned that they had waited for badminton on the outside courts for 35 minutes!! I'm afraid this is unacceptable - the team final should have started as soon as the players were ready (which was at the scheduled time initially) - if they came up against a centre court backlog then so be it - they were ready and willing to play.

The time schedule throughout the whole tournament was without doubt the biggest problem. It was foolish of the organisation to not ask for any help (even though it was offered) with the scheduling and draws - something that is genuinely impossible to do accurately if you have no experience of it. The situation perhaps came to a head on the Saturday night when one match began at 2.20am!!!! Peter Bittár was warming up to play against Peter Sákovics and I naievely thought he was jogging around to keep himself awake - he was preparing for a match that reportedly finished around 3.30am....ludicrous.

Incidentally, Sweden took the team event after good performances from all players, especially Magnus who defeated Mikko, and we never did find the google phone...

The schedule for Saturday looked incredible. 3 rounds of matches in Men's A with the last round around 11pm. Only 2 rounds of matches for Women's A, with the last one nice and early at around 9.30pm...and of course plenty of games in the other categories running long into the night (as previously discussed...). The main contenders in the ladies' event progressed quite comfortably, as did the main veterans, but there were some interesting games in Men's A. The highlight was surely Doug Struthers v Mikko Kärkkäinen. For Doug, perhaps the biggest contrast in abilities between two consecutive opponents, having defeated Michael Heldsdörfer in the first round... The table tennis saw Doug reach 9, this was followed up with a 21-16 badminton victory for the Englishman. A win at squash and the game was anyone's. But of course Mikko's squash - as already mentioned - has been taken to another level and after a 21-14 win he faced no problems in the tennis. Frenchman Plançon showed his real calibre in beating Alex Köpf - winning the tennis was the stand out performance here. Källberg played some amazing table tennis shots to keep Magnus to 7 but after a narrow badminton loss the party was over. Marco Deeg narrowly edged out Peter Duyck, with the Belgian looking out of sorts and Joey Schubert impressively beat Samonek after losing the first two sports.

Saturday night
4 beers later and the last 16 games started in Men's A (around the same time Men's D was ploughing through the last 128 or something similar....) President Weigl had a super game with Marco Deeg and took it in the tennis (+4) but the pick of the games was probably Christian Wall and Christoph Krenn. Krennsky took the match after winning the tennis 17-10 to leave Wall rueing close badminton and squash games that he had heavy leads in. As this was taking place the ladies semi-finalists was decided, with Linda Jansson, Michaela Björnstrom, Silke Altmann and Martina Kakasova all making comfortable progress. It was now getting quite late but there was still the Men's quarter-finals to play! Magnus came up against Sebastien Plançon, but the match was over after a 21-2 table tennis win for the Swede. After battling badminton and a poor squash set from the Frenchman, no tennis was needed. Michi Dickert took out Rickard Persson in the next game - the QPR fan looked tired during the squash (perhaps he was concerned that Rangers had only managed a 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace earlier in the day) guaranteeing 1 Austrian in the semi-finals. Neither Weigl nor Krenn could join him though; Marcel was up against it versus Mikko and retired injured after the badminton, and Christoph once again lost to Stefan, leaving the semi-final line-up as Magnus v Michi and Mikko v Stefan. The inevitable was coming...

Racketlon drinking games! A novel idea, and one that could only have been thought up by a group of Englishmen. A Men's D last 16 clash at 11pm was livened up by a crowd of around 10, watching expectantly. Yes, they were cheering for Stuart Millman, but for the most part they were hoping not to see such things as the ball leaving the court area, shuttles being tested for speed, back wall boasts and double faults, for these all resulted in drinking forfeits of varying degrees. "Ollie, he's hit it in the tin, that's half a litre!!" could be heard around the squash courts around a quarter to midnight on Saturday evening. Certainly something that we will see again...

Matches were also continuing late into the night on centre; some words on the glass squash court - of course it is an excellent idea, but it did take some getting used to for many players. It also introduced the novel concept of 'floor nicks'. On several ocassions players were completely baffled by the ball nicking off the small areas where the floored matting met! (One unnamed player referred to the matchbox court as a 'boite de merde'!!) Ballooning the squash ball out on to the tennis court was also something that hadn't been seen before, and believe me it happened plenty of times! The squash continued to be an issue as it came to the subject of marking. Without wanting to offend anyone in particular, one or two of the local players called upon to mark were nothing short of awful. And that is being kind. No names need be mentioned here as it was fairly obvious who. Tournament organisers please note - every player who enters a Racketlon tournament agrees to also umpire or mark one game in a sport that they are competent so use them! Full marks go to superb squash refereeing from Marc Veldkamp, John O'Donnell, Jacques Van Leewen & Richard Whitehouse. I'm sure there were many others (myself included) who took one or two games, but the above examples really commanded respect with their knowledge of the game and in particular the way in which they communicated to the players. Not a surprise that they were free of criticism. Excellent work gents.

The Sport Moves on towards Official Recognition
Sunday arrived and with it an air of expectation. In less than 10 hours we would know who the World Champions for 2008 would be. The morning began with the meeting of the newly elected 'FIR Council'. Congratulations to Marc Veldkamp, Poku Salu, Thomas Troedsson and Karim Hanna, who all joined the council. Things are certainly moving forwards as we approach the 30 countries needed for AGFIS recognition, and a part-time position for a General Secretary of FIR, which has been approved. More focus will also be given to assessing the tour events next year so we can make sure the tournament organisers, FIR and players are all singing from the same hymn sheet! Hard I know when some countries are across the Atlantic, but the signs are good for international Racketlon.

The End Game
The main focus of play this morning was the semi-finals in Men's and Women's A. Martina Kakosová beat Linda Jansson with a decent margin; she won the first 3 sports to give her a comfortable lead before the tennis, which she won 11-9 - and played very well with it. Michaela overcame Silke Altmann without too much trouble in the bottom half to set up the final later on. In the men's Michi Dickert couldn't get the better of Magnus. The Swede won the table tennis 21-14 which pretty much meant game over for the Austrian. In the bottom half Stefan Adamsson tried to repeat his semi-final win of 2003 over Mikko, and after a 19-21 tt defeat was looking good. The Finn also won the badminton (21-15), but as Stefan said, "If we are level before the tennis anything is possible". Unfortunately Mikko did to Stefan at squash that which he had earlier done to Doug and would later do to Magnus. Win. That set up the final we have already heard about. Michi came third after a fantastic win against Stefan; winning the last 5 points in the tennis to claim a narrow victory. 21-7 in table tennis certainly set him up for that. We have already seen how Michaela impressively brushed aside Martina in the Women's event; unfortunately Silke had to withdraw injured to leave Linda in 3rd place. A rousing prize ceremony complete with national anthems and flags followed later - just a shame it couldn't have been immediately after the final with more people to watch.

I would like to briefly mention the passing of Volker Metz. I played against him a couple of times and he was a very fair player, a fun opponent who was in good spirits whether he won or lost. He found the time to have a chat with anyone and everyone and shared in plenty of good humour. There was a period of silence for him during the opening ceremony. Let's hope we have no need for another of those for some time to come.

And so the tournament came to an end. The sports centre gradually emptied, save for the frantic organisation of the 'shuttlers'. I am sure that everyone who was at the tournament will agree with me, that they were without doubt the highlight of the event. So thank you very, very much indeed and 3 cheers for Stefan, Mark and Daniel, and organiser Gunnar:

Hip Hip - Hooray!
Hip Hip - Hooray!
Hip Hip - Hooray!

'Nuff said.

So, final reflections on another World Championships I hear you ask?

Mikko's squash has improved once again, Weizen Bier tastes just as good, Nürnberg is a wonderful city, squash markers have to be looked at, I'd like more southern Europeans to play now Italy have joined (Spanish Open in Barcelon? I'm there!), the number of Germans competing is becoming a worry (!), women are much better at tennis than men(!), Stuart Foster still snores, Graham Norton still moans and I still love Racketlon. Some things never change, do they?

All the best

/RJ

(Sorry for not listing all the winners of the various categories but I wanted to give it a different slant this time.)

Complete List of World Champions
Team: Sweden
Men's Elite: Mikko Kärkkäinen (FIN)
Ladies' Elite: Michaela Björnström (FIN)
Men's Junior U13: Kris Krawcewicz (AUT)
Men's Junior U16: Ken-Kristjan Toomjõe (EST)
Men's Junior U21: Antti Tyyskä (FIN)
Ladies' Junior U21: Marta Jez (POL)
Men's Veteran O45: Peter Bittár (SWE)
Men's Veteran O55: Olle Benéus (SWE)

Champion Country Count:
Finland, Sweden: 3
Austria, Estonia, Poland: 1

Results in summary (see www.resultreporter.com for full results)
Fürth, Germany, 2008-11-27--30
The Racketlon World Championships

MEN'S ELITE
Quarterfinals:
Magnus Eliasson (SWE WR1) - Sebastien Plançon (FRA WR99) +23 (tt:21-2 ba:12-21 sq:21-8 te:-)
Michael Dickert (AUT WR4) - Rickard Persson (SWE WR8) +12 (23-21 19-21 21-11 12-10)
Mikko Kärkkäinen (FIN WR12) - Marcel Weigl (AUT WR3) +29 (21-3 21-10 ret.)
Stefan Adamsson (SWE WR11) - Christoph Krenn (AUT WR2) +22 (21-12 18-21 21-6 1-0)
Semifinals:
Eliasson-Dickert +17 (21-14 25-23 21-15 7-5)
Kärkkäinen-Adamsson +18 (21-19 21-15 21-11 4-4)
Bronze:
Dickert-Adamsson +2 (21-7 16-21 15-21 19-20)
Final:
Kärkkäinen-Eliasson +24 (21-6 21-16 21-17 -)

LADIES' ELITE
Quarterfinals:
Martina Kakosová (CZE WR1) - Marielle van der Woerdt (NTL WR14) +17 (tt:21-12 ba:9-21 sq:21-15 te:21-7)
Linda Jansson (SWE WR3) - Inge van den Herrewegen (BEL WR15) +23 (21-8 21-18 21-14 -)
Michaela Björnström (FIN WR8) - Karin Geertsma (NTL WR17) +22 (21-12 21-3 13-21 3-0)
Silke Altmann (GER WR5) - Susanna Lautala-Näykki (FIN WR2) +14 (21-8 14-21 21-14 9-8)
Semifinals:
Kakosová-Jansson +15 (21-19 21-13 21-18 11-9)
Björnström-Altmann +21 (18-21 21-10 21-12 5-1)
Bronze:
Jansson bt Altmann W.O.
Final:
Björnström-Kakosová +16 (21-15 21-12 21-19 5-6)

MEN'S JUNIOR U21
Quarterfinals:
Ken-Kristjan Toomjõe (EST WR1) - Arno van den Houcke (BEL WR12) +15 (tt:21-10 ba:5-21 sq:21-3 te:9-7)
Joey Schubert (AUT WR5) - André-Kristopher Toomjõe (EST WR4) +28 (24-22 21-9 21-8 1-0)
Antti Tyyskä (FIN WR6) - Gwennaël Haeck (BEL WR-) +36 (21-16 21-10 21-1 -)
Roy Krawcewicz (AUT WR25) - Paul Sach (GER WR2) +4 (6-21 12-21 21-11 21-3)
Semifinals:
Schubert-K Toomjõe +19 (21-17 21-12 11-5 -)
Tyyskä-Krawcewicz +45 (21-6 21-6 21-6 -)
Bronze:
Krawcewicz-K Toomjõe +35 (14-21 21-12 21-9 21-0)
Final:
Tyyskä-Schubert +14 (21-14 21-19 22-20 11-8)

MEN'S VETERAN O45
Quarterfinals:
Richard Whitehouse (ENG WR12) - Volker Sach (GER WR1) +4 (tt:3-21 ba:21-14 sq:21-17 te:21-10)
Michael Karácsonyi (AUT WR16) - Wingrove Manners (ENG WR29) +1 (22-24 18-21 21-16 1-0)
Peter Krenmayr (AUT WR39) - David Greatorex (ENG WR19) +2 (12-21 21-7 13-21 21-16)
Peter Bittár (SWE WR11) - Peter Sákovics (CZE WR2) +20 (21-8 21-11 12-21 8-2)
Semifinals:
Whitehouse-Karácsonyi +15 (18-21 21-12 21-10 5-7)
Bittár-Krenmayr +21 (21-8 19-21 21-14 4-1)
Bronze:
Krenmayr - Karácsonyi +61 (20-22 21-0 21-0 21-0)
Final:
Bittár-Whitehouse +32 (21-3 21-8 12-11 -)