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| Canadian Racquetball Newsletter |
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April Issue CONTENTS Send Us Your Email Address National Entry Forms are available on-line RiverRacquet Club holds successful LRT event LPRA/IRT Results: Powell/Green excel World Championship final "replayed" in Winnipeg Tournament of the Americas team announced PARC meeting to address Junior Worlds issues Magazine out; open to suggestions for next issue Membership renewals in the mail Executive and award nominees Send Us Your Email Address If you are receiving this email by Canada Post, then you are getting your news a couple of weeks later than the rest of the racquetball community! Get your news sooner, by sending us your email address! You can send it to Peter Robinson at xxrobinson@hotmail.com and, in the process, save Racquetball Canada the cost of mailing - it adds up to more than $6 per year per person - there are better things we could spend your membership dollars on! National Entry Forms are available on-line Entry forms for both junior and senior national championship are now online at racquetball.ca and at riverracquetclub.ca and studeo55.ca. Entry Deadline is Tuesday, April 15, 2003 for juniors and May 1 for seniors. All players at both national events must hold a "Technical A" officiating certificate but a special course is being offered the day before each competition. RiverRacquet Club holds successful LRT event Congratulations to Loren Prentice and Carol Jacobsen for the successful running of the Saskatoon Accutek Classic last weekend. Three Canadians - Lori-Jane Powell, Jennifer Saunders and Veronique Guillemette - made appearances in the quarter-finals. Jen and Veronique both battled injuries that were a significant factor in their decisive matches - we wish them a quick recovery. Josee Grand'Maitre lost a spirited match in the round-of-16 to American Rhonda Rajisch, losing a tight (13) 6 (8) 6, 11 decision. Reigning world champion Cheryl Gudinas cruised to victory with a 2,1,2 victory over Kerri Wachtel in the final. Loren and Carol, in their second year putting on the LRT stop, attracted close to 100 entries. LPRA/IRT Results: Powell/Green excel Mike Green and Lori-Jane Powell both registered impressive results in March on the their respective professional tours. Mike's best result came at last weekend's N.C. Open in High Point, N.C., where he made it to the semi-finals before losing to American Rocky Carson 7,3,(8),3. That result was matched by Lori-Jane two weeks earlier in Baltimore where she made it to the semis as well, losing to American Kerri Wachtel 3 (7) 2, 1. Mike made it to the quarter-finals a week earlier at the Red Swain Memorial tournament in Brockton, Mass., before losing to American Jason Mannino 6,10,(2),3. Kane Waselenchuk, who has been bothered by injuries, was a quarter-finalist at the San Diego Open, losing to Mike Guidry when he had to forfeit his match. Mike successfully qualified for the main draw at the same tournament, but bowed out in his round-of-16 match to Alvaro Beltran 4,(11),10,6. Lori-Jane has moved herself into 11th spot on the tour's rankings, within striking distance of ninth spot. Jen Saunders is 15th pending the "reshuffle" following Saskatoon's results. Members are reminded that they can follow tour results throughout the month at www.irt-tour.com and www.ladiesproracquetball.com. World Championship final "replayed" in Winnipeg In an exhibition match presented by Racquetball Canada, the Women's Committee and Racquetball Manitoba, Jen Saunders and Cheryl Gudinas replayed their world championship match last Wednesday at the University of Winnipeg's Duckworth Centre, the same venue that hosted Pan Am Games action in 1999. Special thanks to Sherman Greenfeld and Ron Brown for their help in organizing and officiating. Tournament of the Americas team announced Racquetball Canada recently announced the team that will represent Canada at the Tournament of the Americas in the Dominican Republic. On the women's side, Josee Grand'Maitre and Jennifer Saunders will play singles, while Amanda McDonald and Lori-Jane Powell will team up in doubles. On the men's side, Mike Green and Vincent Gagnon will play singles and Tom O'Brien and Cory Osborne will team up in doubles. Special congrats should go to Vincent and Cory for their first national team selection. Michel Gagnon will be the head coach of Canada's team, and Loren Prentice will assist him. Usher Barnoff (int'l rep), Cal Smith (referee) and Bob Fong (physio) will also make the trip. The event is the official test venue for the Pan Am Games later this summer, but the host venue is not likely to be finished in time, so competition is being moved to the Santo Domingo Country Club, which recently hosted the Central American Caribbean Games. Twelve countries have confirmed their attendance, including Canada. Another three - Colombia, Costa Rica and Honduras - are pending. PARC meeting to address Junior Worlds format Usher Barnoff, as VP-North America, will attend the PARC meetings in the Dominican Republic, where Junior World Championships issues will be one of the items discussed. There is a movement afoot to possibly move the event outside of the U.S., likely to Mexico. Also, the mechanism of how team scores are tabulated may be changed, with the possibility that not all members of a country's team score will be counted, only a select number of players. This will prevent the "inflating" of certain countries' team scores because they have a high number of competitors in the competition. Magazine out; open to suggestions for next issue The latest issue of Canadian Racquetball has been published and distributed. If you have not received your member's copy, or if your home club doesn't have at least a few on display, please contact Peter Robinson. Peter would like as much input as possible for the next issue, suggestions for additional content and areas of improvement are always welcome. In particular, if you have good, "publishable" quality photos, they are always a nice touch to any magazine (especially since the majority of it is now colour!). A reminder: in order to take advantage of savings in postage, some members (and clubs) received their magazines a few days later than normal. This was due to the delivery being done in "second" or "third" class postage, rather than the normal mailing. Peter would like to thank Adrian Webb for his help getting the books out to Ontario clubs. Peter can be contacted at xxrobinson@hotmail.com or at 647.227.5540. Membership renewals in the mail Annual memberships expired last month. Renewals are being dropped into the mail this week. Please renew as soon as possible and an extra reminder to make sure that you provide valid addresses (both postal and e-mail). It saves the Association significant money in postage. Executive and award nominees A reminder that three executive positions will be elected at the AGM in Vancouver on May 19. VP-Finance, VP-Marketing/Communications and VP-Domestic will be elected. Also, nominees for Ivan Velan, Coaches, Women's and Long-time Service awards are being accepted. The deadline is April 30. |
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