Swedish Championship 2009

The best tournament ever? Why? Because Gothenburg finally took a medallion in the Elite Class. Next year we will make sure some one of us wins a medallion in the Men's Elite Class singles.

A Great Racketlon Adventure in the beautiful Stockholm and in the great Racketlonhall, Enskede Rackethall

Daniel Majetic, Håkan Granberg, Peter Söderström and I went up to Stockholm to defend Gothenburg's colours. We took the car up and as always we had a nice time in the car on the way. We were talking about many Gothenburg Racketlon Legends on the way up. One topic, which everyone seemed to talk about everywhere, was  about Hans Mullamaa and his amazing dedication to racketlon and how we wish him to keep up his good work with racketlon. We also discussed how good Anders Brodin is nowadays is in racketlon and I guess we all wanted them to be with us. Jan Ståhlgren's excellent attendance at every  top tournament  and his focused trainings was another interesting topic of ours. And we all agreed on the fact that we have many good new racketlon players in Gothenburg and I guess we all wanted them to be with us in Stockholm, Enskede. David Sjödal, was debated on the way up. And we all agreed on that he is indeed a great player and it is damn tough to beat him on Sunday trainings. Håkan Granberg talked a lot about Stefan Engström and especially Olle Benéus.  I guess we all wanted them to be competing with us in Stockholm. We do become a bit Gothenburg patriotic during journeys like this, I hope the rest of the Swedes don't think we are too focused on ourselves.

When we got up there in Enskede Lennart Eklund and family welcomed us in a very nice way as always. It is always nice being at the Swedish Championship in Enskede. The hall is nice and the atmosphere is great. I think Enskede Rackethall reminds me a bit of Alelyckan Sport Centre. The Björk's family and crew at Aleyckan Sport Centre is a bit like the Eklund's family and crew at Enskede. They are focused and warm and they really know to take care of visitors in a professional way. Man, it is nice with a big sign outside the hall saying "SM I RACKETLON", then one knows something majorly big is about to happen. And it was nice to see that more spectators could now watch the games.

The Elite Doubles' Tournament 

Daniel Majetic and Niclas Larsson nr 3 in Sweden in doubles Racketlon 2009.

Daniel Majetic and I entered the tournament. In the first round we faced two newcombers in racketlon. We won quite easily. In the second round we faced Roland Helle and Joakim Sandberg. Helle won the Swedish Championships 2 years ago and Sandberg won Swedish Open 1997. It was a very tough draw for us, but we had made up our mind this time we would end up among the 3 best. In table-tennis we played well winning 21-5. In badminton we played at our top just loosing 18-21. In squash we played well but they were just too good 6-21. It was quite even before tennis. Somehow we managed to win the tennis, I don't know how we did it, but we did it. We won the whole game by 1 point.  In the semifinal we faced Christian Wall and Stefan Adamsson. First we won table-tennis 21-5. We were leading badminton but at the end we lost 21-15. In squash we were outclassed 21-3. We didn't have much chance in tennis either 21-7. Next time we will play better squash and badminton. In the bronze-medallion game we faced table-tennis specialists Källberg and Björkeryd. We got 10 points in table-tennis and played at our peak. In badminton Källberg and Björkeryd didn't have much of a chance 21-9 for us. The squash was even 17-21. Then we finished off nicely in tennis winning by 1 point overall 21-17. Nice to finally win that medallion. Next time we will will do even better.

Elite Class

 
Stefan Adamsson played amazing tennis in the final when he beat Magnus Eliasson by 2 points. Christian Wall came 3rd. He beat Helle in a thrilling end-game. Helle had 4 matchpoints.

A great journey with amazing company

Exhausted but happy Gothenburg dudes

A great journey with great company. Peter Söderström what a legend. We wouldn't have taken the bronze-medallion without Granberg and Söderström, no way. Håkan Granberg kept up our spirits during the whole journey. What a comedian. Next tournament for us will be the next Top Tournament at the end of May after that we will head to Switzerland. Hans Mullamaa and Håkan Granberg have promised to play against Majetic and I next autumn, can't wait. We will be better the next Swedish Championships and during the World-Championships in doubles and singles. Most of us Gothenburg Racketlon players need to work on our squash, if we do that the the rest of the the Swedes and the rest of the world better watch out.

Granberg will enter Class +45 and then this year's winner Bittar better watch out and Söderström has promised to fight back even better in the +45 Class next year.

Thanks Lennart Eklund and crew for a great organisation and a great tournament. We will back next year no doubt about that. But next year we will be better especially in squash.