The USA captured the Overall Team title at the IRF World
Championships, August 4-11, in the Dominican Republic, where
athletes from 22 countries competed for top honors. Mexico won the
Women's Team title while the U.S. Men's Team captured the Men's
title at the event held at the Pabellon de Racquetball in Santo
Domingo.
The US Men's Team scored 2-0 against Canada in the Finals. Rocky
Carson defeated Canadian Mike Green, 15-8 and 15-8, while Jose
Rojas bested Kris Odegard 15-14, 15-10. Mexico and Bolivia
finished in 3rd and 4th place,
respectively.
The Mexican women, Paola Longoria and Jessica Parrilla, won 2-0
in tiebreakers vs. US players Rhonda Rajsich and Cheryl Gudinas,
respectively. Canada was 3rd and Colombia placed 4th.
The Individual competition distributed 2013 World Games ranking
points and seeding positions, with Paola Longoria (Mexico) and
Rocky Carson (USA) in the top spots. "This has been a strong event.
Each country came with their best players, and there were many
surprises from the Latin American countries," said Osvaldo Maggi,
newly elected President of the International Racquetball
Federation.
Athletes representing the 22 countries traveled from Japan,
Korea, India, Canada, United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica,
Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Ecuador,
Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Ireland, Catalonia, England,
and the host country, the Dominican Republic.