Reporting by James Pope
We have lots of opinions in Racketlon, many of them wrong and many of them argued about. However, with all certainty there is one we can all agree on: team racketlon is the best format of Racketlon. There are match-ups within matches, battles within battles and there are many more points on offer compared to a singles or doubles match; with your teammates roaring you on, every point feels like it counts double. Ahead of our final year in Rotterdam, we reflect on the previous three editions of the FIR World Team Championships in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Historical Superpowers Dominate Juniors
Across three editions there have been 14 junior events, and of them Austria have won four, Great Britain have won four and France have won four; these three historical superpowers who once dominated the European continent, dominate the future of Racketlon.
French domination was especially apparent in the U11s/U12s category, winning all three editions of this category held in Rotterdam, as they followed up a 1-2 finish in 2023 with final victories over the Brits in 2024 and 2025. Having won the U11’s in 2023, Pierre Barrier returned for the 2025 U14s title (partnering with Clement Augereau in the U11s and Lucas Augereau in the U14s). That 2025 U14s win for France ended Austrian domination in that category, the Austrians having won that event in 2023 (U13s) and 2024.
The Austrians’ other two titles have come in the U16s, which they won in 2025 and 2024, a category once owned by the British (they won six titles between 2014 and 2019, plus the 2023 title in Rotterdam). They took a leaf out of the British playbook with a 1-2 finish in 2024. They also styled themselves on the French, with players winning multiple titles in different categories, as Romeo and Robin Sam led Austria to U13s/14s glory before stepping up to take an U16s title in 2025.
It has been the older junior events that have seen the British win titles: a brace of U21s titles in 2023 and
2024, a U18s title in 2024 and a U16s title in 2024. However for the first time since 2013, the Brits came home empty-handed from the junior team events in 2025. The U21s in 2023 also saw the perils of junior selection, as the GB second team defeated the GB first team in the final! In keeping with some other juniors, Chase Burgess managed the progression, converting his 2023 U16s win into a 2024 U18s victory. However, after the barren results of 2025, will the Brits be back or are they a fading superpower? Germany (U21s, 2025) and Czechia (U18s, 2023) did stop these three countries from sweeping all before them.
Titles Scattered Around in Seniors
There have been 12 seniors events in Rotterdam so far, three each in the O40s, O45s, O55s and O65s, and the titles have been scattered around, with Denmark, Hungary, GB, France, Germany and the Netherlands all picking up titles along the way.
The O40s has been the most competitive with three different winners. There was home glory in 2023 for the Netherlands, by way of a team gummi-arm play off. The Germans had demolished the Dutch, before the Brits edged out the Germans by a single point. That left the Brits needing a win over the Dutch for the title. Instead the Dutch won by a point, to set up the three way play-off. The Dutch took it, with Germany second, and the Brits, agonisingly just two points from the title, finishing in third.
In 2024, the French appeared and smashed the entire field, a series of big wins securing the title comfortably. 2025 became an all British affair. The O45s draw was two sides, so the O45s teams rolled into the O40s as a bonus event for those teams. The British O45s in such a strong vein of form arrived in the final and faced the
GB O40s, although they couldn’t become the first team to win two world titles in the same year! Demonstrating their respective excellence, the French O40s and French O45s played off for third and fourth.
We come next to the O45s, which has been something of a French and British lock-out in recent seasons, with a wee serving of Swedes. 2023 saw France win the Round Robin ahead of Sweden in second and GB in third. In 2024, the Brits and the French swapped positions, the Swedes once again in second; before the straight shootout in 2025, between France and GB.
In the O55s historically it has been a Hungarian hunting ground with the likes of Sákovics & Nandori leading their team to many a title, with some interruptions from the Brits or Germans on occasion. In Rotterdam, this has been a maintained pattern. The Germans took round 1 in 2023, but since they they have been relegated to second and third on the podium, with the Hungarians dominating proceedings and winning in 2024 and 2025. Sákovics and Nandori have been there again, but Sagi, Janzer and Matesca have played an increasing role in their sides’ performance. The O55s will be going through a structural change in 2026, with the addition of a Women’s singles bringing it in line with the O40s and O45s formats. Will it change who is the dominant nation?
Finally we arrive at the O65s event. We all get older, but not all of us will still be moving around the court as these players do when we get there. Maybe it is the hyyge lifestyle extending good sporting years, but the Danes have been the star performers in this age group in Rotterdam, with 2023 and 2024 wins, before a silver in 2025. The Brits took that title in 2025, bettering a silver in 2024. While 2025 saw the Brits win no junior titles, they took three out of four senior titles including maiden wins in the O40s and O65s.
