Ask any runner, cyclist or swimmer what a triathlon is and they will know it. But ask any tennis or badminton player about racketlon and nine out of ten have never heard of it. Yet this sport has been around for years. Last week, the world top descended on Rotterdam for the World Cup, with Kirsten Kaptein from Groningen as a prominent signboard.
‘Well done man’, says a supporter to 28-year-old Koen Hageraats when he steps off the badminton court. His opponent, Adarsh Vikram Nayaranaswamy, walks off the court rather grumpy after the two have shaken hands. But had the man from Germany, who plays for India, just failed to win convincingly 21-9? It’s typical racketlon. Hageraats had won 21-4 in table tennis shortly before badminton and knows that he is the better squash player. So nine badminton points against the specialist is pure profit.
Sport for all-rounders
Racketlon; it is the sport for all-rounders with a racket. A match consists of four sets to 21: first a set of table tennis, then badminton, then squash and finally tennis. From light to heavy, so to speak. All points are added together and whoever scores the most points wins.
The racquet quatathlon originated in Sweden and Finland in the 1980s. In the last twenty years it has been picked up throughout Europe and that can also be seen at the World Cup, where large delegations from Germany, France, Austria, Great Britain and Scandinavia are present in racket center Victoria in Rotterdam. Including a few from outside Europe: an Australian and a player from Hong Kong participate in the highest category for men, and two Americans for women.
Table tennis buddy
Racquet has been played in the Netherlands for twenty years now, since 2003. The 42-year-old Kirsten Kaptein from Groningen has been active in the sport for over fifteen years. ,,I heard through my mother that there was an NK racketlon and that seemed like something to me. I played table tennis, but I used to play tennis and as a student I played squash. A table tennis buddy went there and I decided to go too.”
Kaptein is now a board member of the international racket union (FIR) and she plays about eight international tournaments every year. As a result, she is high on the rankings and she is third in the World Cup, but after her elimination in the quarter-finals she immediately puts it into perspective: ,,I am so high because I play many tournaments. But I had lost to this Austrian twice before. I’m happy, I played well, but she was better.”
small bonds
The Netherlands is well represented by the FIR; It is not for nothing that a World Cup has been held here for the fourth time, but the number of participants remains limited and is decreasing rather than increasing, says the chairman of Racquetlon Nederland, Guus van de Burgt. There are plenty of racket sports fanatics, he believes. “But how do you achieve it? We are a small association, with limited financial possibilities. And a problem is that the number of racket centers in which you have enough space to practice all these sports is very limited.”
Hardly any locations, and therefore hardly any opportunity to play racketlon tournaments. ‘Having a nice racket’ with a group of friends is not possible, it is a matter of training the four sports separately. That’s how Koen Hageraats (28), the best Dutch racket runner and semi-finalist at the World Cup, does it too. He is a member of a tennis, squash and badminton club in Amsterdam.
There he trains with Guidi Weijel and Stan Soels and then they travel through Europe about four or five times a year to participate in racketlon tournaments. ,,They are also very good friends and such a tournament is actually a kind of holiday.” He enjoys the World Cup in his own country, although he does not want to speak of ‘home advantage’. ,,Many family and friends come to support me and that gives me a lot of extra pressure and tension. But I really like it, so you could call that an advantage.”
Quit table tennis
Racketlon is mainly a hobby for Hageraats, getting pleasure from the sport. He lost that pleasure in table tennis, in which he was a top talent and was among the top ten in the Netherlands when he retired. Five years ago he discovered racketlon. “I then started training the other sports. I’ve improved a lot in squash in particular, I’m now one of the top fifty in the Netherlands. I prefer to train once or twice a day on a part, only table tennis I don’t do at all anymore. I only play that in racquetlon games.”
With his many years of training that is still good: Hageraats hardly ever loses a game of table tennis and in the quarterfinals he even beats the Frenchman Damien Andre 21-0 off the table.
He is now one of the world’s best and takes the bronze medal at the World Cup, despite a hamstring injury that he has been struggling with for about nine months. ,,With a brace and painkillers I could just play”, says Hageraats. He acknowledges that racketlon is prone to injury. ,,That has to do with the fact that I approach this as a hobby, but it is sport at a high level. Actually, you have to train much more physically for that. But I would much rather play squash, badminton or tennis than go to the gym.”
Not cheap
Being a member of several associations, good material for four different sports and traveling to play tournaments: racketlon is not a cheap hobby, Hageraats knows. He is lucky that he has found a sponsor through some means, so that he more or less breaks even in terms of money. It makes his hobby affordable and keeps his dream alive: to become world racketlon champion. Although he is already close – against the Brit Luke Griffiths, who extended the World Cup title in the final at the expense of his brother Leon, he only lost by eight points – the North Hollander himself thinks it will be difficult. ,,I will have to improve my weak points, badminton and tennis. With badminton I am at fourth division level and that should be towards second, with tennis I am at level 4 or 5 and I should actually be a ‘two or three’. I don’t know if that’s realistic.”
2023-08-07 19:02:41
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