The last Super World Tour of the year is in the books as the racketlon players visited Winnipeg in the middle of Canada. 56 players from 7 different countries participated in the Cardinal Capitol North American Championships at the great facilities of the Winter Club. All results are now onlie on fir.tournamentsoftware.com
Drama in the Men Elite
After making his comeback a month ago at the English Open winning the Super World Tour there, Calum took his second successive SWT win by defeating Canadas Patrick Laplante, who put up a good fight against the former World Champion. Patrick took table tennis and badminton both by 21-19, however coming into the squash, which is Calums best sport, it wasn’t enough for the Canadian hope. After a 21-1 at the with the rubber ball, Calum closed out the match at 6-5 in tennis.
Calum had taken down Lukas Windischberger in a brutal battle in the semi-final. The squash lasted for almost 45 minutes, which in the end proved too much for Lukas that cramped up in his hands in the tennis losing 17-8. Cramp was also a big issue in the other semi-final, where local Winnipeg hope, Evan Mancer played countryman, Patrick Laplante. Evan as unseeded had taken out world number 4, Morten Jaksland in the first round and world number 11, Jesper Hougaard in the ¼-final, both in long gruelling matches. Patrick needed 16 points in tennis to reach the final, but Evan raced to an 8-1 start looking in control. Unfortunately, Evan were unable to finish the match due to cramps in his left leg and had to withdraw at 9-5 up. Lukas won 3rd place the next day beating Evan before tennis.
Chrisi Seehofer marches on
In the women’s event World Champions, Chrisi Seehofer was naturally the big favorite for the title and she did not disappoint. Make Fishcer of Germany was defeated in the final with Lilian Druve finishing 3rd after beating Winnigpeg local Alix Younger for the bronze in a close contested match.
European domination in the elite doubles classes
The European players won all the elite titles, however half of the pairing winning the Men Elite doubles was Canadian with Patrick pairing up with Austria’s Lukas. They beat Morten Jaksland and Kresten Hougaard of Denmark convincingly in the final with the Shannon brothers, Kelly and Corey taking 3rd place.
Mixed Elite was unsurprisingly won by Austrian superstars, Chrisi Seehofer and Lukas Windischberger, who are both looking very strong for the upcoming Euro Champs at home in Vienna.
The Women’s Elite double was won by Lilian Druve and Seehofer again after a win in the final over Canadian 1 and 2, Alix Younger and Erin Lee Roberts.
Plenty of medals for the hosts
The Canadian players did well at home turf taking no less than 16 medals. Besides the ones in the Olympic draws, there was success for Dany Lessard winning the Men B in a Canadian final against Riley Peake. Dany also took second in Seniors +55 only losing to Britains Steve Kneller. Kneller also won the +50-class with countryman and US-living Andy Stenson finishing second. Mohyna Deraj won the U13-juniors class in and all Canadian class with Evans son, Liam Mancer finishing second. A big final between close friends and poker pros, Emil Patel of USA and Tobias Hausen of Germany attracted a big crowd. Tobias came out on top by a margin of only a few points.
Racketlon Canada hope to be back in 2018 with another well-arranged tournament. Calgary have been mentioned as a possible new host city.
Kresten Hougaard
FIR president
