The 2022 International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Championships begin in San Luis Potosi, Mexico on August 20, and we’ll review the Canadian and Mexican teams today. Eight Canadians and six Mexicans will compete in San Luis Potosi.
Team Canada
The Canadian team is led by the current Men’s Doubles Pan American Champions: Coby Iwaasa and Samuel Murray. They qualified for the team through their performances at a Racquetball Canada National Team Selection Svent as well as the 2022 Canadian National Championships. Murray won both those events with Iwaasa as the runner up both times, so they are the top men’s qualifiers.
Joining Iwaasa and Murray on the team will be veteran Lee Connell, who’ll make his fourth appearance on Team Canada, and Kurtis Cullen, who’s on the team for the first time. But Cullen has considerable international experience, as he’s been a referee at several IRF events, including the recent World Games in Birmingham, Alabamba and the Pan American Championships earlier this year in Bolivia.
Iwaasa and Murray will play doubles, hoping to add a World title to their Pan American one, and Connell and Cullen will play singles. Murray will also play Mixed Doubles with Frédérique Lambert.
Lambert, the current Canadian Champion in both Women’s Singles and Doubles, will play doubles in Mexico with Michèle Morissette, who she won the Canadian title with in May. Danielle Drury and Juliette Parent will play singles.
Supporting Team Canada in San Luis Potosi will be Head Coach Michel Gagnon, Assistant Coach Evan Pritchard, Therapist Amy Barrette and Team Manager Jen Saunders.
Team Mexico
More than half of the six Mexican team has won a IRF World Championship, and half the team are currently World Champions. Paola Longoria leads the team, and comes in as the IRF World Champion in both Women’s Singles and Doubles with Samantha Salas, who will be in San Luis Potosi to help Longoria defend that title. Alexandra Herrera rounds out the women’s side, and she’ll be the other player in Women’s Singles.
All three of the Mexican men have been World Champions, and Rodrigo Montoya won Men’s Doubles at Worlds last year with Javier Mar. However, this year he’ll play singles with the 2018 Men's Doubles World Champions Daniel De La Rosa and Alvaro Beltran there to try to win again. De La Rosa - the #1 player on the International Racquetball Tour (IRT) - will also play singles. Montoya and Salas will be the Mexican team for Mixed Doubles, and they won mixed at this year’s Pan American Championships.
Mexican controversy
It’s great that Mexico will have such a strong team at Worlds. However, some controversy will surround the team, as the Mexican racquetball federation has issued released a press release, which was reportedly printed in a Mexican national newspaper, stating that it’s not receiving financial support from their national sport body to compete at Worlds. The lack of support is surprising given the success of the Mexican team in recent years and the popularity of the sport in the country.
The Mexican sport funding body CONADE, issued a press release in response. They contend that the Mexican racquetball federation has not complied with several requirements for funding. Moreover, CONADE believes that it is owed over 400,000 pesos (over US$20,000) by the Mexican racquetball federation, and almost 4 million pesos (almost US$200,000) by nine racquetball people, including Longoria, Salas, Beltran and De La Rosa.
The Mexican racquetball federation has responded to CONADE’s release in which they dispute some of the non-compliance issues, as well as whether any funds are owed by the organization. Apparently, there was former Mexican racquetball federation that should be responsible for some of those funds.
Clearly, there’s some “he said / she said” going on here as the racquetball federation and CONADE argue back and forth about these issues. Such conflict is never good for a team preparing for a competition, as it can be a complete distraction.
Veteran players like those on Team Mexico are less likely to be distracted than rookies, so perhaps this won’t matter too much. However, four of the six players on the team are specifically named by CONADE as owing money. That could be difficult to ignore. While the players might try to ignore it, they will undoubtedly be asked by the media about this situation during the World Championships, as the event is happening in Mexico.
There are 9 days until Worlds begins in San Luis Potosi. We’d like to think there will be a resolution to this conflict by then. However, the wheels of government rarely work that quickly, so it would be a surprise if they did in this case.
Tournament format
The XXI IRF World Championships begin Saturday August 20 in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. There will be three days of group stage matches follow by three days of medal round competition beginning Tuesday August 23 and concluding Thursday August 25. Only the top two players from each group will advance to the medal round, so every group stage match matters. There will also be a team event beginning on August 25 and ending Saturday August 27.
The team event will be a best of three matches: two singles matches and a doubles match. The order of the matches may vary, so, for example, the doubles match may be the first, second or third match between the teams. Player positions may change from the individual events to the team event, so the players who played doubles, for example, in the individual events need not be the players to play doubles in the team event. But once a team roster is set, it can’t change from one round to the next. Team rosters will be determined after the individual events are over.
Follow the bouncing ball…..
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