The WPH Race 4 Eight Pros Player’s Choice Awards
Los Angeles, CA, WPH Press, 3/24/25
The Race 4 Eight Pros overwhelmingly voted the 2024 Juarez Race 4 Eight quarterfinal clash between Leo Canales and Ray Ure as the 2024 Race 4 Eight Match of the Year. Canales and Ure were fittingly awarded in the trophy room of the historic Los Angeles Athletic Club during the 2025 LAAC Race 4 Eight.
Canales and Ure split the first two games of the Match of the Year in front of a frenzied Juarez crowd, with Canales dominating the first game and Ure dominating the second. The tiebreaker was close throughout, with both players holding match point in overtime. Canales ended the match of the year deep into overtime on his fourth attempt, passing Ure to the left and instantly erupting with emotion with his home crowd chanting “Leo,” “Leo,” “Leo.”
“I have never experienced anything like that and I probably never will again,” Canales would later say.
Canales would make the final at Juarez, while Ure used the loss to fuel a torrid Race 4 Eight run that saw him move from outside the Race 4 Eight top twenty to inside the Race 4 Eight top three within a year.
One year after the 2024 Match of the Year, Canales and Ure both sit firmly inside the Race 4 Eight top four and continue to produce electrifying handball at virtually every Race stop.
David Fink
WPH Senior Writer
