World Racquetball 2009 Highlights

Racquetball has been confirmed as a full medal sport for the Central American Games to be held in mid December 2009 featuring the seven counties in Central America. Competition will be held in San Pedro Sula , Honduras.

Racquetball has been confirmed for the Central American Caribbean Games in mid July 2010 in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico 4 new Racquetball Courts are being built at the University where the competition will be held. They will be a lasting legacy for the sport.

The Pan American Sports Organization-PASO – has approved the quadrennial coaches seminar under the IOC Solidarity Program. 22 Coaches from 14 countries in the Americas will meet under the auspices of IPRO and Gary Mazaroff for a week in Guadalajara, Mexico. This is a major program under PASO to continue the development of Racquetball and all Pan American Sports. The entire seminar is funded from IOC Solidarity funds. The program is administered through each countries National Olympic Committee. Supporting Gary are Ron Brown, Miguel Perea, Coach Moreno, David Ellis, Jo Shattuck as well as experts from the Mexican Olympic Committee.

Racquetball is once again a full medal sport in the Pan American Games that will be held on the beautiful 5 glass courts at the Olympic Complex in Guadalajara , Mexico –October, 2011. More on this at a later time.

The IRF has signed a 4 year agreement with Penn as the “Official Ball “of the IRF. We would like to thank Doug Ganim of Penn for his and Penn’s continued support of racquetball worldwide. Penn joins E-Force as a major Sponsor of the IRF and its major World and Regional events.

The IRF held a Strategic Planning Session in February to chart the course of the IRF for the future. It was great success with major participation from all major areas of the International Racquetball Partners. The goals and objectives that came out of this exercise can be found on the IRF Web Site.

The 4th Annual World Seniors Doubles Championships were held in Vancouver, British Colombia. Over 130 competed and it was a great success. We are currently negotiating with Ireland to hold the 2010 edition of the World Doubles. Look for more information as it becomes available.

The World Senior Racquetball Championship - which is one of the longest running year to year International Racquetball Competitions - will once again be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The entire event has been restructured and the committee is most excited about this years Worlds. To date 12 countries are sending competitors. We expect up to 20 to compete. The WSRC are World Racquetball Championships under the umbrella of the IRF. The WRSC is open to all racquetball players worldwide.

The IRF World Juniors are on schedule for Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic for this December.

The 2010 IRF World Championships are shaping up nicely for Seoul, Korea. The all Glass Portable Court used at the World Games this year will be featured as the championship court located in a nearby shopping center with seven other portable glass backwall courts installed in a nearby exhibition hall. The courts will be used to promote racquetball throughout Asia after the championships.