In the first part of this article, we shared Mohammed Tarik Koubaa’s thoughts on the development of racketlon around the world.
One of the places he mentioned as a growth area is New Zealand. It may be unknown to many in the racketlon community, such is the distance from racketlon’s heartlands of Europe to this great Southern Hemisphere nation, but, since the beginning of 2017 it has actually held over 40 tournaments, despite the disrupted COVID years.
The most successful and well known player by far, Sion Wiggin, reached the top 10 for the first time earlier this year, after his win at the Australian Open – and in the last two years has made extended trips to Europe to play racketlon (and see family in England and Wales).
He says, “Racketlon has been building slowly as we are fortunate to have lots of keen racketlon players around the country that put on tournaments in their region. But the main challenge is keeping the players connected once they have given racketlon a go.”
“In recent years I would say I’ve probably travelled the most. During COVID I wanted to give the tour a proper go so made the decision to travel in 2022 for a couple of months and did the same last year.
“Of course the main challenges for anyone in NZ or Oceania is time and money, as you do need to travel for a couple of weeks at least to make it feel worth going. From Auckland to fly to Europe it takes over 24 hours to arrive and flights are not cheap.
“What probably saved me in 2023 was the racketlon community and having met a lot of people I was able to save more on accommodation.”
He says finances were the main reason he has not competed so much this year, largely down to his wedding, on October 19th (congrats, Sion!). He has also been doing a lot of squash coaching and held his first Racket Sport Holiday Programme, which was a great hit (pun intended?) with the kids. “I have a big passion to build Racketlon and the love of Racket Sports here,” he adds.
But he won the Australian Open earlier in the year and says he wants to bring his partner to Europe one day, which “might be an excuse to compete again haha.”
On his next adventure to Europe (or elsewhere in the racketlon world) he may be joined by others, as the New Zealand Open, held at Sion’s alma mater Massey University, looks very exciting, a great way to bridge the very healthy interest in New Zealand’s domestic racketlon scene with the international tour. We may even see a New Zealand team at the World Championships in the coming years…
Sion explains, “The biggest excitement for us having the NZ Open is to have the opportunity to showcase our best talents on the international stage that haven’t had the opportunity in the past. We will have past professionals in each sport. When I’ve played in NZ despite winning lots of titles it’s been hard with lots of talent around the sports.”
“Our goal here is to build more international tournaments not just in NZ but in the Southern Hemisphere so it is easier for talented racket stars can have a proper go at competing at the high stage without having to give up so much of their life for it. We are hoping to get many more international events in the future which will hopefully attract more players around the world to visit our beautiful country.
“Having the event in Palmerston North will be special as it’s been a regular for racketlon there over the years having hosted events since 2016 including our nationals the last eight years. We hope with the right advertising we can create a successful tournament and showcase our best players to the world.”
Rivalling Mohammed and Sion for the title of most dedicated racketlon player is American Patrick Moran. Playing seemingly hours of sport every day, and with an active social media presence to spread of the word of racketlon, he has built a vibrant racketlon scene in the USA, particularly New York, as well as playing multiple tournaments in Europe and captaining USA at the World Championships. This year, his team bagged silver in the Nations Cup and they were joined by a second USA team, for the first time.
He explains, “The development in the USA is going well. There is a strong community of players in NYC and the Northeast who are spreading the word and training hard. Across the country, we are working with a few venues in Northampton, Portland, Cleveland and California to host future tournaments, including kids and women’s events.”
“Proximity is a big challenge to growing. Not too much else. Social media allows us to stay in the loop with our racket friends from around the world. FIR does a good job with social media and tournament updates. It would be nice to see more of the international players come to future US/Canada tournaments – hopefully we have more for them to come to. Or if they want to visit NYC and battle some of us and eat pizza, we are always ready!
“Over last 2 years, it’s probably a tie for second between Andy Stenson, myself and Katrin for who travels the most for tournaments. However, Stephanie Chung has been the most active on the world scene and has shot up the rankings. She has almost surpassed me on total world tour matches played [125 to 107].
“The most exciting thing is having more and more keen players in the Northeast who are training hard for World Tour events and World Champs next year, where our goal is to send three squads!
Want to play racketlon internationally? Then check out next year’s World Tour! And if you want to find out more on how you can spread the word of racketlon around the globe, then read more here.
