Reporting By James Pope
For the open team events of the 23rd Teams Championships, there are four events: the World Cup, Nations Cup, Challenge Cup, and the new Satellite Cup category, introduced as the Challenge Cup was proving so popular.
Racketlon, for so long was the preserve of Europeans with an occasional American, Canadian or (very) odd Australian. While there have been wins for the traditional nations we have also seen Hong Kong, and India taking the titles in the Challenge Cup, which is where we shall start.
2023 saw the announcement of Hong Kong as a racketlon-playing nation. Having arrived in force in Roehampton at the World Doubles Championships that July, they stayed on for Rotterdam and worked their way through the European nations with style. France 5 flattened and Switzerland 2, the top seeds, conquered, before Great Britain 4 in the final, which was a great, very tight battle, but ultimately it was a Challenge Cup title for Hong Kong.
That narrow loss was hard for GB, who came back in 2024 targeting the Challenge Cup title, the only Open title missing from the GB trophy cabinet. Despite a horror injury to Kate Russell in their opening match, super sub Mollie Patterson slotted in and GB4 cruised to the title, defeating Denmark 2 in the final. However, it was the quarter-final between GB5 and France 4 that was perhaps the most dramatic. Kieran Shelley trailed 6-3 at the turn in the final tennis rubber, with France needing nine, and he produced heroics, including a diving lob, to win 11-6 and take the tie for the Brits.
2025 and it was the turn of another newer nation, as India defeated Denmark 2 (again!) in the final, with a draw that saw India defeat USA 2s and Denmark beat USA 3s, with Hong Kong 2 also making it to the quarter-finals.
For the Nations Cup, there has also been an increasingly non-European feel in recent seasons, with only Great Britain 2 of the European nations showing a consistent presence on the podium. In 2023 the Brits lost out in the final to Hong Kong 1, backing up the hard work of their second team in the Challenge Cup that year. The USA took third spot on the podium by defeating France 2 in the bronze medal match.
2024, and it was Germany 2 who stopped the Americans from winning the title, with just four points separating the Americans from a first World Teams title, with the Brits finishing in third.
2025 saw a return to more traditional rivalries in the final, GB2 vs France 2 and it was the Brits who took the title, having missed out in the previous two Rotterdam editions. There have been 11 editions of the Nations Cup, with GB2 winning five times and on the podium 10 times in what has been a dominant event. But with Hong Kong rounding out the podium in 2025, the growth of American and Indian sides, there is growing competition from the new nations amongst the traditional rivals.
We finish with the World Cup, the pinnacle of racketlon team events. Of the 17 World Team titles awarded before Rotterdam (excluding the two European championships on this occasion), Sweden has nine titles, with seven consecutive titles since the event’s inception in 2002 and a ten-year gap between their eighth and their ninth in 2014; Austria has 3 titles; Germany, Denmark, and GB a pair of titles each; and the other titles being Poland in 2009, breaking the Swedish dominance, and Finland in 2011. (The two European Championships were won by Denmark in 2015 and Austria in 2017.)
To date, no non-European nation has got to the final of the World Cup. The trend continued in Rotterdam. It is a British (well, English) peculiarity to expect that each year is “their” year in a World Cup, and it is not just a football-based delusion; it is seen in rugby, cricket and probably even Elephant Polo.
However, with a team featuring both Griffiths brothers, the experience of Izzy Bramhall and Calum Reid, plus the youth of Matt Davidson, there was strong expectation in the 2023 final vs Denmark. However, if the Elite Brits have an achilles heel, it is a Danish arrow that triggers it. A thumping win for Stine Jacobson (over her friend and regular doubles partner Izzy) helped secure the Danes victory, with Morten Jaksland & Kresten Hougaard keeping the Griffiths brothers in check. France claimed third place.
2024 and once again the Brits were in the final, once again with Scandinavian opposition, and once again the result was the same. Anna-Klara Ahlmer led the way with a significant victory over Holly Ranson in the final, helping them to a ninth World Cup win for Sweden, a record that might never be topped.
Germany took out the defending champions Denmark for third. Two Rotterdam trips, two silver medals for the Brits. Some would say it was a good haul, for others a dissapointment. As they arrived in 2025, they were solely focused on the win, this year WOULD be their year. They first saw off their 2024 conquerors, Sweden. A semi-final next against another old foe, Austria, who were also swept aside. Three Rotterdam trips, three finals… would there be a World Cup title?! France 1 stood in their way.
Rotterdam 2025 was something of a Britain vs France affair. Of the 11 Team events that year Great Britain played France in the final or semi-final of six of them (with seven matches, the O40s was a GB and France semi-final lock out). It looks to be very similar this year with both nations bringing 20 teams across all age groups, and France bringing a whopping nine open age teams!
As their first teams met in the World Cup, their second teams were meeting in the Nations Cup – the two biggest team squads were dominating affairs. In 2023 and 2024, the Women’s Singles had decided the final, and with Myriam Enmer against Tilda Parslow, you felt the same offering was on the cards.
However, the whole match was stacked with juicy head-to-heads, including the joint-World Number 1s Sylvain Ternon vs Leon Griffiths (both players had been tied on points in rankings for the event). The scorecard shows it was the benefit of having three-times World Champion Luke Griffiths as number two that swung it, his 24-point win over Damien Andre the big divide between the two nations.
However, it was probably in the women’s singles where the psychological battle was won. I commentated on the final, and Tilda had won the table tennis. The badminton should have been Myriam’s at a canter, but she just couldn’t shake off the plucky Brit. Myriam won, but the mere two-point lead she took into the squash shook her and it shook the team.
The Brits were always going to dominate the squash, but the badminton wobble echoed through the remainder of the match. Britain romped home and it was finally their year, after only a relatively small six years of hurt….
This year’s tournament
France will once again come in strong, with NINE open age teams, including seven in the Challenge Cup (although one or more will likely be moved to the new Satellite Cup), a testament to the strength and size of their domestic tour, comfortably the largest in racketlon. There will also be strong representation across all categories from Germany and Great Britain, while India, USA, and Hong Kong all have teams across the categories – great to see given the distances they travel.
There is also a new category, an O70s team event. GB and India are in the hat for that first title in a brand new event! Follow our channels and keep an eye on Tournament Software to follow all the action our final visit to not just anywhere alone, but Rotterdam.
