Croke Park, IRE, WPH Press, 12/12/22
GAA Handball and Croke Park played host to the European 1-Wall Elite Event, pitting the best 1-Wall men’s and women’s players from Ireland, the U.S., the Netherlands, Spain, Basque, Great Britain, and Israel. Fans in Croke Park and watching from around the world were treated to several incredible matches, including an 11-10 tiebreaker thriller in the women’s final.
Players were grouped in pools, with the top finishers in the pools advancing to the semifinals. All of the matches were played in the 21-21-11, win by one, rally scoring format.
Women’s Euro 1-Wall Elite
U.S. #1 and former 1-Wall world champion advanced to the final with a close tiebreaker win against Spain’s Mar Giminez in pool play and a two-game sweep against Israel’s Anastasiya Spiridonov in the semifinals.
WR48 #1 and Irish 1-Wall #1 Catriona Casey defeated Spain’s Mar Giminez in three games in the semifinals to meet Daskalakis in the final.
Casey took game one of the final, but Daskalakis bounced back to win 21 of the 26 rallies in game two to force a third. The tiebreaker produced the most exciting match of the tournament, with both women sitting at sudden-death match point at 10-10. Daskalakis was able to secure the final point and add another major title to her hall of fame resume.
“I was focusing on the ball,” stated Daskalakis. “I was overhitting the ball throughout the final and it wasn’t necessary. I was hitting the ball too hard when I didn’t need to. I remember telling myself to find the balance of big ball and small ball. Rally scoring makes you second guess an aggressive play style in a score so close, so I remember telling myself to just focus on rallying with Catriona small ball style but then finding parts in that rally where I take the ball out of the air and use my body to box out Catriona and i think that made the difference in the tiebreaker.”
Semifinals
Daskalakis (U.S.) def Spiridonov (Israel) 21-12, 21-15
Casey (IRE) def Giminez (Spain) 15-21, 21-8, 11-3
Final: Daskalakis def Casey 13-21, 21-5, 11-10
Men’s Euro 1-Wall Elite
Ireland’s Conor McElduff has established himself as one of the world’s most dangerous single wall players, amassing many of the game’s biggest titles. McElduff overcame Basque’s Lur Ziarrusta in the semifinals in two close games to set up a clash with Spain’s Sacha Kruithof, who defeated Great Britain’s Luke Thomson in a tiebreaker to advance to the final.
Very little separated the best from Ireland and the best from Spain in the final. The pair matched up in the pool play portion of the event, with McElduff winning 11-10 in the tiebreaker. The final saw the two stars split two close games to set up a tiebreaker. Unfortunately, Kruithof withdrew after the second game, making McElduff the Euro 1-Wall Elite champion.
“Conor does everything well, court coverage, uses all the angles, dominates the middle very well with his height and reach and on top of it he’s a crowd entertainer, hitting some ridiculous shots,” reported WPH Ireland correspondent and R48 pro David Walsh. “Conor has a lot of titles under his belt now and when the going gets tough in tight situations he seems to have a knack of always getting over the finish line. That was evident again in his group (pool play) game versus Sacha.”
Semifinals
McElduff (IRE) def Ziarrusta (Basque) 21-8, 21-20
Kruithof (Spain) def Thomson (Great Britain) 13-21, 21-14, 11-4
McElduff def Kruithof 21-18, 15-21, fft
“It was a really cool event,” stated Daskalakis. “Dan Grant and the European tour has been better and better over the years and with the GAA collaborating with him, only means even better things to come. The (Croke Park) facility for handball is amazing.”
Watch the matches on the GAA Handball page HERE
For more on the 2022 European 1-Wall Elite Event and GAA Handball, visit GAA Handball HERE
Photos courtesy of GAA Handball
David Fink
WPH Senior Writer