Final report from San Antonio; a quick word about the Team Competition (not to be confused with the Team ranks created by summing up points from the individual competitions).
All 16 countries who had enough players to field a full team (Italy, Denmark, and Eritrea had individuals competing but not enough for a team) participated in the Davis Cup style competition, which had two rounds of singles and then a doubles match to break the tie. There were both men and women’s competitions, which added together to name a Combined winner as well.
Here were the results.
Men’s Team: USA topped Canada in the final to claim the Men’s team title and finish off a 3-gold weekend for Daniel De La Rosa . Canada upset both #2 Mexico and #3 Bolivia to get to the finals in a great showing from Samuel Murray and Coby Iwaasa .
Men’s Results:
1. USA
2. Canada
3rd: Mexico and Costa Rica
Women’s Team: #1 Mexico completed the perfectly-chalk draw by topping #2 Argentina in the final. Mexico was pressed in the quarters with a shock defeat of @Paola Longoria by former LPRT touring pro-turned ER physician Frederique Lambert , but the Mexican doubles team prevailed to move on.
Women’s Results:
1. Mexico
2. Argentina
3rd: USA and Bolivia
When adding Men’s and Women’s results together to declare a combined team winner, USA and Mexico tied at the top … and Mexico won the tie-breaker to claim the Combined title.
Combined Results:
1. Mexico
2. USA
3rd: Canada and Argentina.
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Impact for the 2025 World Games.
These 2024 worlds served as a qualifier for the 2025 World Games. You can read their release here: https://www.internationalracquetball.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IRF-Qualification-TWG2025s.pdf
Per this release, the “The final results of the Overall Combined Racquetball Championships San Antonio 2025 will be the qualifying event for The World Games Chengdu 2025.” We also know from the release that the available slots are divided/reserved for groups of countries as follows:
– Asia (including the host country China): 4 teams
– Europe: 4 teams
– The Americas: 8 teams
So, based on the final Combined results, who qualified and who didn’t? Here’s the exact results of the Combined Team play:
1. Mexico: Americas #1
2. USA: Americas #2
3. Canada: Americas #3
4. Argentina: Americas #4
5. Bolivia: Americas #5
6. Costa Rica: Americas #6
7. Guatemala: Americas #7
Now, here’s where it gets tricky. Three Countries, all from the Americas, tied for 8th in Combined: Chile, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic. How will the 8th team be selected? I have no idea. Chile had better individual results in the individual play stage, but that may not be the tie-breaker used.
8t: Chile: America’s #8
8t: Ecuador: Americas 1st Alternate
8t: Dominican Republic: Americas 2nd alternate
11t: South Korea: Asia #2 (China as host is Asia #1)
11t: Japan: Asias #3
11t: Ireland: Europe #1
14t: India: Asia #4
14t: Colombia: Americas 3rd alternate
14t: Germany: Europe #2
Two other European teams competed at Worlds (Italy and Denmark) but they did NOT compete in the team event due to lack of personnel. Do they get Europe’s #3 and #4 spots? I don’t know.
So, assuming I’ve got this all right, here’s the 16 teams that have first right of refusal for the World Games in 2025:
– Asia: China, Japan, South Korea, India
– Europe: Ireland, Germany, Italy, Denmark
– Americas: Mexico, USA, Canada, Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Chile.
The eventual SEEDING once WG2025 starts will be determined (as is pointed out on the 2nd page of the above PDF link) by the finish in the individual events Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, and Mixed. So that’ll mean (factoring in tiebreakers in the 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8 spots):
Men’s Singles: USA, Canada, Mexico, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Argentina, Guatemala, India
Women’s Singles: Mexico, Guatemala, Argentina, Chile, USA, Bolivia, Italy, Canada
Mixed Doubles: USA, Mexico, Bolivia, Guatemala, Chile, Argentina, South Korea, Canada.
I could be wrong here; take this with a grain of salt. At least we have racquetball at the 2025 World Games!
Congrats again to all the winners, congrats to the IRF and USAR and all the San Antonio racquetball supporters who made this happen, including the Sudsy Monchik-led team that did a Centurion fundraiser.