The 2006 World Padel Championships in the
city of Murcia, Spain
This was
a truly superb event and every one of the 7-days proved to be my greatest sporting
experiences since Tommy Lawton scored a hat trick when England beat Scotland
6-2 at Wembley in 1945 (or was it 1944?). England were losing 1-0 at half
time and 7 of the 8 goals were scored in the goal that I was standing behind.
Since that time I have been to Grand Prix motoring events in England and abroad as well as many other very
good sporting events but none of them reached the organisation and excitement
standards of the above Murcia
event. I sincerely thank the Murcia
authorities and the FEP for organising such a wonderful event and the
Presidente’s and teams and officials of all the International Padel
Federacions for their tremendous contributions to make this a ‘perfect’
event. Below I put a few recollections of my experiences that I shall never
forget.
Brian Thompson, President
The Padel Federation (United
Kingdom)
Palacio de Deportes de Murcia, Spain
The portable Padel Court was set up in approximately
half of this arena to hold the semi-finals and finals of The World Padel
Championships 2006
The whole arena can seat at least 7,500 people. At one end of this arena there were 5-Glass
back Squash Courts from Ellis Pearson, Sheffield,
England.
Outside this building was set up a ‘Padel Village’,
where there was another portable Padel
Court and around 20-Tents where padel equipment
suppliers could display their products.
Approximately 2km from this centre is the Centro Deportivo La Flotta,
a very impressive sports complex. For the Padel World Championships, they had
set up another portable Padel
Court on the multi sports indoor area. There were another 7 permanent outdoor
padel courts, 6 of which were ‘on the roof’ and the remaining outdoor Padel
Court, which had seating for a few hundred, was sunk down one level from the
outdoor court playing surfaces.
Centro
Deportivo La Flotta
The Argentina Femenino Team with their Coach Jorge
Nicolini & Brian Thompson the President of The Padel Federation (United Kingdom). The Argentina teams won both the
Femenino & Masculino Team events and three of the above ladies were also
in the Open final, which Paula Eyheraguibel & Carolina Navarro of Spain
won (please see the picture below).
Paula Eyheraguibel
& Carolina Navarro (Left) and Auguste Evangelista & Cristian
Gutierrez after respectively winning the Femenino Open and the Masculino Open
at the Murcia 2006 World Padel Championships
Argentina Masculino Team who were 1st and the
Brazil Masculino Team who were 2nd
Espana Masculino Team who were 3rd
The Espana Femenino Team who were 2nd
Brazil Femenino
Team who were 3rd and the Mexico Femenina Team
The very
impressive duo Iciar & Neki who found the opposition a little too strong
in Murcia
but they will be back
The
lovely and extremely hard working Concha (Left) very well supported by her
friend Carlos, (right), as was
Brian Thompson by his wife Irene.
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