<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <title>Racquetball Canada - Press Release</title> <meta name="Description" content="Racquetball Canada"> <meta name="Keywords" content="Racquetball Canada, racquetball, canadian racquetball sports"> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.racquetball.ca/racquetball.css"> <script language="JavaScript" src="http://www.racquetball.ca/en/java/HM_Loader.js" type="text/javascript"></script> </head> <body bgcolor="white" leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0"> <!-- Begin Header --> <table align=center width="780" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr valign="top"> <td width="355" height="111" rowspan="2"><a href="/en/index.html"><img src="/en/images/header-1.gif" width="355" height="111" border="0"></a></td> <td width="425" height="16" align="left"> <table align=center width="425" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr valign="top"> <td width="50" height="16"><img src="/en/images/header-gutter.gif" width="50" height="16" border="0"></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td width="425" height="95"><img src="/en/images/header-2.gif" width="425" height="95" border="0"></td> </tr> </table> <!-- End Header --> <hr size=30 color=white> <font face=arial> <h3 align=center><B>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : POUR DIFFUSION IMM&Eacute;DIATE </h3> <h4 align=center>GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA : April 9, 2006 : 9 avril 2006 </h4> <table align=center width=90%> <tr> <td valign=top width=50%> <h3 align=center><font face=arial color=red>Pan American Championship Racquetball Team - Weekend Results</h3></font> <P>Canada has an unblemished record after the first two rounds of the Pan American Racquetball Championships in Guatemala City, Guatemala. <P> Linda Ellerington (Shields, SK) is the only player who had some difficulty on the weekend. She needed a tie-breaker before beating Carolina Gomez (Columbia), 15-9, 13-15, 11-10. Ellerington won her other match more easily, defeating Deborah Kessler of Costa Rica, 15-9, 15-0. <P> Jennifer Saunders of Winnipeg, Canada's other women's singles player and current Canadian Champion, won both her first two matches with ease. She beat Naomi Sasso of Costa Rica, 15-0, 15-4, and Patricia Beltranena of Guatemala, 15-4, 15-3. <P> The women's doubles team of JosÈe GrandíMaÓtre (Longueuil, PQ) and Veronique Guillemette (Deauville, PQ) won their opening two matches. They defeated Carolina Gomez and Liliana Guevara of Columbia, 15-10, 15-9, and Cristina Cordova and Maria Del Carmen Crespo of Ecuador, 15-2, 15-3. <P> On the men's side, Kris Odegard of Saskatoon, representing Canada for the first time, won both his opening matches against Alexandre Lerman (Brazil), 15-2, 15-3, and Simon Perdomo (Dominican Republic), 15-8, 15-7. <P> Vincent Gagnon of Longueuil, Quebec also won his first two matches. He beat Bruno Hamermez of Brazil, 15-5, 15-0, and Santiago Ugalde of Ecuador, 15-7, 15-5. <P> Mike Green of Burlington, Ontario and Brian Istace of Calgary, the reigning Canadian men's doubles champions, won their opening matches against Eduardo Gonzalez and Marcos Brador of the Dominican Republic, 15-6, 15-4, and Alexandre Lerman and Bruno Hamermez of Brazil, 15-2, 15-5. Green and Istace were silver medalists at last year's Pan Am Championships, so they will be looking to improve on that result this year. <P> The tournament format is a preliminary round to determine seeding for an elimination round. The preliminary round finishes on Monday with the elimination round starting on Wednesday. The competition ends on Saturday, April 15. <td valign=top width=50%> <h3 align=center><font face=arial color=red>&Eacute;quipe des championnats panam&eacute;ricains de racquetball  R&eacute;sultats de la fin de semaine</h3></font> <P>Le Canada pr&eacute;sente une fiche immacul&eacute;e apr&egrave;s les deux premi&egrave;res rondes des championnats panam&eacute;ricains de racquetball, pr&eacute;sent&eacute;s &agrave; Guatemala City, au Guatemala. <P>Linda Ellerington (Shields, SK) est la seule Canadienne &agrave; avoir connu des difficult&eacute;s au cours de la fin de semaine. Elle a eu recours au bris d'&eacute;galit&eacute; pour vaincre la Colombienne Carolina Gomez (15-9, 13-15 et 11-10). Ellerington a toutefois remport&eacute; son autre match avec plus d'aisance face &agrave; la Costa ricaine Deborah Kessler, en deux matchs (15-9 et 15-0). <P>Jennifer Saunders (Winnipeg, MB) a remport&eacute; ses deux matchs sans anicroches. La championne canadienne en titre a vaincu la Costa ricaine Naomi Sasso (15-0 et 15-4) et la Guat&eacute;malt&egrave;que Patricia Beltranena (15-4 et 15-3). <P>En double, les Canadiennes Jos&eacute;e Grand'Ma&icirc;tre (Longueuil, QC) et V&eacute;ronique Guillemette (Deauville, QC) ont remport&eacute; leurs deux premiers matchs en battant les Colombiennes Carolina Gomez et Liliana Guevara (15-10 et 15-9) et les &Eacute;quatoriennes Cristina Cordova et Maria Del Carmen Crespo (15-2 et 15-3). <P>Chez les hommes Kris Odegard (Saskatoon, SK) a bien entrepris sa premi&egrave;re participation ý ce tournoi international en battant le Br&eacute;silien Alexandre Lerman (15-2 et 15-3) et le Dominicain Simon Perdomo (15-8 et 15-7). <P>Vincent Gagnon (Longueuil, QC) a aussi remport&eacute; ses deux premiers matchs, face au Br&eacute;silien Bruno Hamermez (15-5 et 15-0) et l'&Eacute;quatorien Santiago Ugalde (15-7 et 15-5). <P>Mike Green (Burlington, ON) et Brian Istace (Calgary, AB), champions canadiens en titre en double masculine, ont vaincu les Dominicains Eduardo Gonzalez et Marcos Brador (15-6 et 15-4) avant de disposer des Br&eacute;siliens Alexandre Lerman et Bruno Hamermez (15-2 et 15-5). Rappelons que Green et Istace ont &eacute;t&eacute; m&eacute;daill&eacute;s d'argent aux championnats panam&eacute;ricains de l'an dernier et ils chercheront &agrave; am&eacute;liorer ce r&eacute;sultat cette ann&eacute;e. <P>Les rondes prÈliminaires prendront fin lundi et serviront &agrave; identifier les favoris pour la ronde &eacute;liminatoire, qui d&eacute;butera mercredi. Le tournoi se terminera samedi le 15 avril. <tr align=center> <td colspan=2 align=center> <hr color=white size=10> <h3><a href="/en/tournaments/toa/2006/cdn_res_2006.html">RESULTS SUMMARY : SOMMAIRE DES R&Eacute;SULTATS</a></h3> </table> <!-- Start Footer --> <hr color=white size=30> <!-- End Footer --> </div> </body> </html>