Warsaw, Poland Tour 3-5 March 2017
Another squash tour to a new location beckoned.
The plan was to play in the “B” level Squash tournament at Kahuna Squash Club, Warsaw, Poland.
Once everybody was checked in to the hotel it was time to sample the culture (once we knew where we were heading)!
The perfect training regime started with a few local drinks, leading in to the old town and back.
Moving swiftly on to some more “interesting drinks”!
…and finally a night cap, before the big day!
Saturday morning arrived and absolutely cracking matches were had by all – some more than others! Jason didn’t get too many matches – that’s what happens if you lose too many 😉
….and James found a front seat to watch the later matches for those who were still in the tournament! Alas, none of us were amongst the winning contingent!
After a good but long day of squash matches it was back to the hotel for a quick turnaround to enjoy the sights, sounds, food & drink of what Warsaw had to offer.
Somewhere along the way Darren lost “everything” and the following morning needed Iain to assist down at the police station!
There were many stragglers in the morning but Jon made sure he got his fix of “culture”….
Discussing the world, the universe and everything.
Then it was all over….
Top weekend!
Edit: Clearly the Poles were expecting big things from us England folk, so I leave you with the write up from the Kahuna Club Site, translated courtesy of Google Translate! Along with a top photo of Moz!
…..At 11.00 we started with the OPEN category, in which 68 players participated, including two players: Natalia Ryfa and Olga Krzemińska.
We have been visited by a lot of guests from outside Warsaw as well as competitors straight from England. The level of guests from Stamford was a big mystery for Poles, after all England is the cradle of squash.
However, we showed what we can do and the English were not terrible. From the very beginning there were no surprises, the leading players won their matches smoothly. Adam Pełczyński did not give his rivals a single set. Only in the semi-final he gave two sets to Domagoj Spoljar. In the longest match in the tournament, lasting almost 74 minutes, he managed to win 3-2 and secure a place in the final. Piotr Hemmerling and Łukasz Kondratowicz met in the second semi-final. The duel is equally exciting and long ended with the victory of a 3: 1 player from Kahuna. In the final, Adam Pełczyński showed his best side, won with Domagoj, he winged him and he was absolutely flawless. In the quick match he defeated Łukasz Kondratowicz 3: 0 and in this way Adam secured gold for himself! The oldest of the semi-finalists, Spoljar, could not stand the hardships of the tournament and gave the third place to Piotru Hemmerling without a fight.
At 2.00 pm the Women’s Tournament started. 18 players have started. In the next tournament, Dorota Grzechowiak deserves a big distinction, who despite the illness took part in the tournament and after a hard and also the longest semi-final match with Agnieszka Honkisz in this category, she secured her place in the final. However, the definite favorite on this day was Anna Zawartka, who, without losing a single set in the whole tournament, finally took the first place! Dorota Grzechowiak was right behind her, and Anna Huseynova stood in third place after a good match with Agnieszka Honkisz.
After finishing the finals, we went to the most pleasant part, and thus the winners’ reward. Ladies and gentlemen, they received prizes funded by ASICS Polska. Their total value in the OPEN and Ladies tournaments amounted to PLN 3,000.
A lot of players took part in the competition, it was an extremely long but successful tournament and we hope that the next tournament in this series will be similar. We invite you to ASICS Kahuna Tour vol. 5 as of 8/04/2017!
See you on the courts!
