Season ending thriller in Langnau
11. Dezember 2022
When in a Swiss championship tournament the eventual champion wins by just one point in the 1st round and the loser later finishes in last place, it is the ultimate proof of how close the field of players is. And when a gummiarm is added in the grande finale, the evening can't be beat for excitement. But now, one after the other:
In the first round, the Mamié brothers already caused some surprises. Léon challenged the later finalist Nico Hobi in extremis and the big coup was within reach with only one missing point. Noah, on the other hand, managed the exploit and was able to win against co-favorite Nicolas Lenggenhager thanks to a brilliant performance in badminton.
After that, it was youth versus experience. Christian Schäfer also had to show a strong performance to stop the up-and-coming Noah Mamié from reaching the final. At least it worked out with a win in the bronze medal match for the youth against Magnus Ekstrand, who failed in the 2nd round against Nico Hobi.
Consequently, Hobi and Schäfer faced each other in the final. Both wanted to take their chance for the title and fought with full commitment for every point. Hobi made the perfect start in table tennis and Schäfer fought back in badminton. The squash match then went back to Hobi, who now went into tennis with a +15 lead. It is well known that Schäfer can keep his opponents below 10 points. He was allowed a maximum of 6 points. It came as it had to come. Gummiarm. Schäfer served, Hobi returned longline to come to the net. Twice, Schäfer played back and looked for the gap. Twice, Hobi played the volley. Once into the field and once into the out. Schäfer's 4th title after 2010, 2015 and 2021 was secured and he was visibly relieved.
In the women's event it was also exciting. Adeline Kilchenmann and Nicole Eisler faced each other in the finals. Could Kilchenmann stop Eisler before winning the 9th title? Kilchenmann started solidly in table tennis and managed to win the 1st half. Eisler made a comeback in the 2nd half and still managed to win the match by a narrow margin. In badminton Kilchenmann played very strong as usual and made few mistakes. Eisler earned 13 points with all her strength. Kilchenmann also started well in squash and scored with many aggressive volleys and killshots. Eisler, however, found her way better and better into the game and with more precise balls into the corners ensured a lead before Tennis of 6 points. Both tried to bring a safe tennis to the rebound ace court and so it remained even at the beginning. In the 2nd half, Eisler gained more confidence and pulled away to take the 16 points and the 9th gold medal. Dara Ladner won bronze.
The Men's +55 also played for the Swiss champion title. Here, too, the players sweated, played fair and fought for every point. With two wins each already in the bag, Manfred Grab and Christian Nyffenegger entered the final. Former table tennis career against former badminton career. This was also visible in the results, although Nyffenegger won 10 points in table tennis. Unfortunately, he had to admit a defeat in squash and tennis and Manfred Grab won the title. Bronze was won by Michael Kolp against Giovanni Gentile.
Details of the Swiss Championships results.
Parallel to the Swiss Championships, a Night Tour event was played in 3 categories. The matches were just as exciting and top-class. However, if these matches were also described in such detail, the writer would not get any rest at all after the tournament.
Therefore here the ranking with the link to the results in detail:
Men Cat. A: WINNER: Frederik Floether // SECOND: Erich Kälin // THIRD: Danijel Batinic
Men Cat. B: WINNER: Severin Wirth // SECOND: Stefan Szymkiewicz // THIRD: Patrick Bürgi
Men Cat. C: WINNER: Yannik Haller // SECOND: Yves Sallin // THIRD: Simon Oberholzer
Congratulations!
It was nice to see familiar and new faces at the start. The atmosphere was great and for the 53 players, 2 photographers and 1 tournament director the apéro afterwards was definitely very well deserved. A worthy end of the season with desire for the new season.
The Swiss Racketlon Federation thanks all players for their participation and wishes everyone a good recovery and happy holidays. See you in the new year with new gained strength and passion!
NE
