Tucson, AZ, WPH Press, 5/8/24
The 2023/24 Race 4 Eight season ended with the 2024 Aces Player’s Championship, featuring double ranking points for the R48 Men’s Pro, WR48 and SR48.
Martin Mulkerrins claimed his first Player’s Cup, finishing the season as the dominant number one player with four titles in seven starts, including ending the season on a thirteen-match, three-tournament winning streak and a 28-3 match record. After spending much of the season ranked outside the top two, Mulkerrins started his climb to the top with a 12-15, 2-12 comeback against Sam Esser in Juarez, eventually winning that match and tournament and sweeping the final two stops of the season in Tucson and Salt Lake City.
The Flying Cordovas ended the 2023/24 season ranked two (Lucho) and three (Danos), with both Lucho and Danos holding the number one ranking and different points during the season. Leo Canales ended the season in the top four for the second consecutive season, overcoming a slow start to the season to make finals in Montana and Juarez and a semifinal in Salt Lake City. David Fink kept his top five season-ending streak alive, Killian Carroll jumped into the top six after entering Salt Lake City at number eleven, while Sam Esser’s seven quarterfinal or better finishes in eight starts allowed him to finish in the Elite 8 for the third consecutive season. Vic Perez rounded out the top eight, as P. Vic was the only player to finish the season in the Elite 8 who did not start the season in the Elite 8.
Catriona Casey won her twenty-ninth WR48 title at the 2024 Salt Lake City Aces Player’s Championship and is now the nine-time WR48 Player’s champion, ten-time WR48 Player’s Cup champion with a staggering 94-2 WR48 match record. Casey completed her eighth perfect season on the WR48 on her 2023/24 campaign, winning four titles and extending her WR48 tournament winning streak to seventeen.
Mikaila Esser completed her best WR48 season, finishing at a career-high number two, while WR48 rookie Niamh Heffernan finished number three with a third and second place finish in her first two starts. Multiple-time WR48 finalist Ciana Ni Churraoin rounded out the WR48 Fab 4, matching Heffernan’s second and third place finishes in her two starts on the WR48 season.
David Fink finished number one on the SR48 tour for the sixth consecutive season, winning his fourteenth SR48 title at the 2024 Salt Lake City Aces Player’s Championship. Fink is now the six-time SR48 Player’s Cup champion and four-time SR48 Player’s Champion with a 40-1 SR48 match record.
SR48 rookies David Munson and Adam Bernhard finished second and third, respectively, in the season-ending rankings, with both advancing to their first SR48 finals in their first SR48 starts. Chris “Waddy Dog” Watkins rounded out the SR48 Fab 4 on the strength of fifth and fourth place finishes in his two SR48 starts on the 2023/24 WR48 season.
Watch the 2024 Aces Player’s Championship recap with ESPN’s Kara Mack:
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WPH RACE 4 EIGHT: The World Players of Handball’s 2023/24 Race 4 Eight XIII Powered by ESPN features Race 4 Eight stops in Oregon, Arizona, Missouri, Montana and Mexico, all culminating with The Player’s Championship in Utah in May of 2024. Similar to NASCAR’s Nextel Cup and the FedEx PGA Playoffs, players earn points in the Race 4 Eight’s regular season stops to qualify for the season-ending Player’s Championship and bonus prizes.
For more information on the WPH Race 4 Eight title sponsor opportunity, please contact World Players of Handball Executive Director David Vincent at dave.vincent@wphlive.tv or World Players of Handball Development Director David Fink at david.fink@wphlive.tv. For more information on the World Players of Handball, please visit wphlive.tv
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David Fink
WPH Senior Writer