The lengths, in this case quite literal, that some people will go to to play racketlon is a humbling sign of this sport and the appeal of our community. This year, as for previous World Championships, we have one player coming from Australia, and another who has cycled all the way here from Basel, Switzerland!
The former is, this time, not actually an Aussie, but British player Henry Jones, who today clinched bronze in the Men’s B over compatriot Raif Fontanelli. So the long journey paid off. He also plays in the Nations Cup for GB2 this weekend.
And Swiss player Yann Leutwiler cycled around 950km from Basel, even meeting someone on the way and spreading the word of our great game. He played in the C grade and will represent the Switzerland team in the Teams competition.
We’d love to hear of more of the longest or most innovative journeys to racketlon tournaments and see more in the future!
Henry says:
I think I just wanted a change in my life. I wanted an adventure. I lived in London for four years. I loved it but I wanted a bit of change and adventure. Two of my best friends wanted to move here too so we all moved together which was very nice.
Obviously as soon as I touched down I joined a squash club and tennis club… and badminton and table tennis. I play in a squash team and table tennis team, which is very fun. Obviously as anyone who plays sports knows, great way of making friends, especially when you have moved to the other side of the world and know literally no-one.
I have already got lots of people interested in racketlon and, who knows, there could very much be an Australia team next year. So keep your eyes peeled for that eventuality.
In terms of my flights, gosh, it’s a 34-hour flight from Abu Dhabi to Amsterdam. I then stayed in a canal boat with my family friend, who lives in Amsterdam, for a couple of days, to get over my jetlag and then got the train over to Rotterdam.
I was in Abu Dhabi. I found you can do night tours of the great Grand Mosque in the centre of town. So I went for a 3am viewing of a mosque, which was a fun way to break up a trip I think.
So yeah happy to come back. Very exciting to see everyone and get to play as well. Who knows maybe my time in Australia has improved a few of my sports, maybe not. Time will tell…
And Yann says:
I have many things that I like doing in life and this summer I absolutely wanted to do a bike trip (it’s my third one alone) but also wanted to go to the Racketlon World Champs. So I had the idea that I could combine both! And this was realy great because it gave a meaningfull goal for this trip.
I absolutely wanted to bring all the stuff needed with me and not ship them because it would have lost a bit of sense from my point of view. And because I had to bring all the rackets, I made the choice not to take a tent with me but rather sleep in hostels.
The Euro Vélo path is realy nice because you get to meet other cyclists during the day going the same or the opposite way.
The best parts were:
Between Basel and Colmar where you cycle along a canal and I really liked the old town of Colmar.
Between Bingen am Rhein and Koblenz were you get to cycle in a hilly area with amazing view and a lot of castles.
And from Arnhem to Rotterdam because they have incredible bike lanes in the Netherlands 😂🫶. (You see a huuuge difference.)
On day six I met another Swiss cyclist who was also going to Rotterdam (but slept in camping). We rode for an hour together and thought it could be fun to see each other again on the way. And on the next day we did! It was totally random and we exchanged our Instas and hope to meet again here in Rotterdam. Dutch people are the nicest. Because in Arnhem I met a retired person while riding. He saws me and my Swiss T-shirt and said “Hop Suisse” and added, “I live there in 50 meters, do you want to drink a cup of coffee at my flat?” And so I ended up on his balcony drinking a coffee with him and his wife.
