Je vous copie ici un article écrit en anglais par un joueur d’Edmonton Thuy Cao. J’ai jugé intéressant de le partager même s’il est en anglais.
My name is TC, and I’m just a regular guy who loves racquet sports. I discovered the Racketlon tournament 2 years ago and since then I am so thrilled anytime anyone mentions something about the Racketlon tournament. I would like to share some of the great moment which I had at the Glencoe open 2012. I grew up in a family that loved ping pong. My dad was a great player and his friend was one of the best players in the country at the time. We had two ping pong tables at home. I start play at the age of 5. I still remember the first time I held the paddle; my head just barely pass the height of the table. Every day we would have to play, practice and practice. With so much time of ping pong and no option to do anything else, I began to hate the game. Soon the sound of the ping pong balls sounded like the sound of a Grandfather clock clicking in my head I decided to find some other sports. My thrill of ping pong now is playing ping pong on the cruises I go on during vacation. I try to beat the older men or older ladies over 60 years old so I could win the travel mug presented as trophy; the one that they can’t sell any more and so they have to give it out as souvenir. I found passion for badminton when I was in Malaysia. I played in high school and two years at Nait. I loved the game so much so I took some coaching courses and started coaching adolescents and kids to play badminton. However, due to my working schedule I had to quit coaching and put my badminton game in the back burner. I married and now have two kids and I spent a great amount of time to raise them. All of my badminton racquets were disappearing into the closet. I met some friends who play tennis in a church group so I decided to take on the tennis game. I played recreation all summer and spent most of the time trying to fix up the bad habits of my tennis game. I consider myself a weekend hacker in tennis. When I heard of the first Racketlon tournament in Edmonton I was ecstatic. I thought I could do well in this tournament; at least 3 out of 4 sports. I took a quick scratch course of how to play squash. I fell in love with another racket sport. I’m still learning the game though, because most of the time during the game I keep staring at the wall and not watching my opponent’s shot. Everyone has their different opinions about Racketlon. Some people love to win; other people love to learn different skills; some love to meet new players; and the rest may want to keep in shape. For me the Racketlon tournament is like a big overview of what I have been done so far in my life with racquet sports. Ping pong make me appreciate my dad’s lesson and all the opportunities that my dad gave to me that I had put down to the drain as a younger person. Badminton reminds me of all the fun times I had in college. Tennis reminds me of how beautiful and how precious the summer time is here in Canada. The game of squash helps me to bring my stamina to the max. Last month I saw that the Racketlon tournament was opened in the Glencoe Club in Calgary. I entered right away. I looked for place to stay, and planned everything out for the weekend. My plan was slightly changed when my wife and kids decided to come along. When I checked the game schedule, I received an email from tournament director. He asked me if I could pick up another player from the Edmonton airport and bring him to the Racketlon tournament in the Glencoe Club. My first thought was, “This guy must be an old fellow who loves the game like I do and just wants to get away for a weekend.” I gladly accepted the request. Now I have a new friend that I can chat with all the way from Edmonton to Calgary. My goals of this tournament were: – Try not to hurt myself. – Try to win as many rounds as I can. – Having a good time, check out the beautiful Glencoe club. – To meet the Racketlon man, and try to find out what made him become the number one player in Canada. Finally the weekend arrived. I managed to run all of the errands in the morning, pick up the kids from school, bring the kids to piano practice, have a quick lunch and head to the airport to pick up the new Racketlon fellow from Montreal. My entire guess was wrong about the fellow. He was a lot younger than I thought. He is quiet, smart, and speaks fluently both French and English. I am not sure why he’s quiet; is it because I did all the talking, or is it because of his character? We chatted along the way and we found out that we have a lot of things in common. We’ll call him Junior. Junior and I both love the games, we love to travel, and we love to eat different kinds of food. We both know most of the famous professional players in the past and present in the 4 sports. The trip to Calgary seems shorter this time since we were in conversation non-stop. Finally, we arrived at Calgary. I invited Junior to join my family for dinner. He seemed to enjoy both the food and the companions. After dinner we finally found our way to the Glencoe club. We both had late games, so everything worked out perfectly. I had a close match on the first round but yet I still managed to win. I still got “squashed” though; I’m very bad at squash. On the second round I lost to a young fellow from Glencoe. He said he won the B event from previous year, so that made me feel a bit better. He also offered me a drink. That was it for me. I spent the rest of my time eating chicken wings and dumplings, drinking, talking to people, and watching the games; everyone seems so happy. Almost everyone is willing to go to Edmonton to play for the next Racketlon tournament (which usually held on first week of May at Royal Glenora Club). I spent my time watching Junior to see how he is doing. One game after the other, Junior managed not to lose any games. He went straight to the finals and won the whole tournament with having only lost at one sport. If you want to find out which sport he lost at; you have to go to see him at the next Racketlon tournament. Coincidence or not; I didn’t have to go around and try to find the Racketlon man. He was with me all along. I have to admit that I had the best weekend so far, until I found out how much money my wife and the kids spent on shopping. I had played the games I loved and met the guy that I always want to meet. Now the world is getting ready for the best Racketlon man from Canada, What does he have? Here is The Racketlon man profile:
Good luck Junior and I hope to see you soon. The next stop is the Victoria Racketlon tournament in March 2013.
