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Austrian
National Champs 2006
Austrian Nationals
played on Glass floor!
Andy Holland reports |
The Official Car
The court build
Glass floor in use
The Trophies
On the Floor ...
Pamela, Poldi and Birgit
Men's Semis:
Leopold Czaska bt Andreas Fuchs
10/8 9/3 3/9 9/7
Gerhard Schedlbauer bt Aqeel Rehman 4/9 9/7 9/3 7/9 9/6
Final
Czaska bt Schedlbauer
9/5 6/9 7/9 9/4 9/2
Women's Semis
Pamela Pancis bt Bettina Greslehner 9/1 9/4 9/5
Birgit Coufal bt Konny Hofer
9/1 9/4 9/4
Final
Pancis bt Coufal
9/3 1/9 9/7 6/9 9/0
|
 And
so it came to pass that Harry Pancis, father of Pamela, owner
of Squash Center Hofsport near Salzburg and esteemed
organiser of many an event would one day ponder the idea of erecting
a glass court for the Austrian National Championships.
Harry has had plenty of experience in organising such events and
also hosted world ranking events in the eighties which boasted
players such as Jahangir Khan and Chris Dittmar. He did not let us
down this time either.
In conjunction with Mr ASB, Horst Babinsky - who was present
the entire weekend to witness his latest creation being tested; a
court with a glass floor! – too many sponsors to mention and the
Europark Shopping Center in Salzburg, the WILSON Austrian
National Championships took place from 25th – 27th March.
The court itself was the great quality we have come to expect, but
what of this new floor? How should that work?
Surely the players
would be sliding all over the place as soon as the first droplets of
sweat from the players, or even the Referees brow, appeared on the
surface of the court.
As it happens the complete opposite is the result. Babinsky has
created a floor where the players stop without any chance of
slipping whatsoever. A completely nonslip surface, which absorbs
moisture.
The venue was superb (the Europark is one of the newest shopping
malls in Europe), plenty of spectators, media attention, national
television, a celebrity tournament with Olympic skiing medallists
and Austrian footballers.
The after tournament player’s party was also not to be missed and
the dancers…...
Oh. Almost forgot, there was a National Championships being played
and I have to say there were some great matches.
Four for Poldi ...
As expected the top four seeds made the men’s semis. Andreas
Fuchs and Aqeel Rehman taking on Poldi Czaska and
Gerhard Schedlbauer respectively.
 Poldi had taken 3 weeks holiday to train for the nationals and was
in top form surprising top seed Andreas and taking the match 3/1.
Gerhard found himself struggling after losing the 4th game and
promptly went 6/0 down in the decider.
At this point however, to
Gerhard’s advantage, Aqeel decided to relax and let his opponent
recover. This small lapse of concentration cost Aqeel the match and
saw Gerhard through to his first final since he last won back in
2000.
Another encounter between two great retrievers went to five games
and in the end the 10 games took their toll on poor Gerhard who went
down 3/2, giving Poldi his 4th title adding to the ones he won in
2001/ 2002 and 2003.
Sixteen for Pamela !!!
As expected the ladies final was contested between Pamela Pancis,
going for an amazing 16th title (she is still only 29!!) and
Birgit Coufal, who is currently studying at UWIC.
Surprisingly Pamela started weakly in front of her own supporters
and within a short period of time Birgit found herself 2/1 up with a
real chance of creating the upset of the weekend.
After being just 3
points away from defeat Pamela managed to keep her resolve and
turned the match around winning the third five setter of the day.
So that was that. It was all over again for another year, just the
trophies to be presented (Pamela’s was nearly as big as her, you can
hardly see her behind it in the photos!) and the champagne corks
popped and then onto the players party….
Which I almost forgot about!!
But I guess I will leave that for another time. Suffice to say it
was great night and sun was just coming up as I crawled under the
covers, but I certainly wasn’t the last to leave.
Cheers Harry! Let's have more of the same!
Andy Holland
Sport Coordinator
Austrian Squash Association |
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