The first racketlon organized in Whitehorse, Yukon on August 29th and 30th has been a great local success. There were 27 participants who played in either one or two categories, which were:
U17
Women
Men A
Men B
Men’s double
Mixed double
Only two players came from outside of Whitehorse. One was from New York and the other was from Montreal. Gyanendra Singh, the organizer of the tournament, was very happy with the local participation. He had help from the Sports Services of the City of Whitehorse, who also promoted the event. Unfortunately, luck had it that on that same weekend, there was a Racketlon tournament in Ottawa.
The event took place at the Canada Games Centre, a multisport venue built for the Winter Canada Games of 2007. Since there was no squash, table tennis, badminton and pickleball were played in the FlexiHall, a gymnasium with facilities for the three sports. Tennis took place at Mount Mac, an outside venue 200 walking meters away from the Canada Games Centre.
The participants were very enthusiastic during the tournament, discovering this new sport called Racketlon. The vast majority of the participants were playing their first Racketlon tournament.
In the U17 category, Tyler Au won the round robin tournament. Second place went to William Hayes-Locke. In the Women’s category, Sunny Kim won with second place going to Peggy Shewfelt.
In the Men’s B, the tournament was won by Brian Johnson, with second place going to Stephan Burdess. Brian also won the Men’s doubles with Marc Fortin. The mixed doubles was won by the team of Naveen Yarlagadda and Peggy Shewfelt.
In the Men’s A, Naveen Yarlagadda from New York took the first place, winning in the Final against Gyanendra Singh. The match needed to be finished in tennis, as the three first sports were very close. Third place was won by Marc Fortin, who won the three first sports easily over Aviam Netanel Soudack.
Gyanendra Singh and the City of Whitehorse want to organize another Racketlon this winter (tennis would be replaced by squash) and probably another tournament in the Fall 2027. The enthusiasm of all the participants convinced the organizers of the success of the event.
