General News
A Reminder to All Members: U19 Junior Individual Championships
Apr052022
Please note the Championship Regulations after our prolonged absence from competitions due to Covid!
In particular, we would like to bring attention to the following sections of our Regulations and which have been followed in preparation for the upcoming U19 event in Eindhoven
"I - SEEDING OF TEAMS AND DRAW
The Junior Committee will agree and elect a Chair of the seeding panel and will agree on membership of the seeding panel.
W - Under 19 Individual Championships:
The Seeding Panel will seed the Top 16 Individuals in each event, whose entries have been received 30 days before the Start Date, based on known current form. Seeds 1 and 2 will be identified first, thereafter players will be seeded in the following bands up to 16 in each Event: 3/4, 5/6, 7/8, 9/12, 13/16. The seeding of players from 17 to a maximum of 64 will be based on the current ESF Junior Rankings in bands 17/24, 25/32 and 33/64 in each event."
By way of explanation, the seeding of the top 16 players is determined by the Seeding Panel appointed by the Junior Committee.
Michael Gaede (GER) is the director of the seeding panel and other members were Yann Mennegaux (FRA), Pascal Bruhin (SWI), David McAlpine (DEN) and Eoin Ryan (IRE). The reason for this rule (seeding of top 16 players done by the panel and not by the ESF ranking) is that ESF Junior rankings do not always correctly reflect the current form of all players, as not all of the top juniors play many ESF Junior circuit events. Clearly, with not many junior events played over the last year, it was not an easy task for panel members who used all the results and data available to generate pooled average seedings that, according to them, best reflected the current form of players.
We hope that this explanation of the process used for seeding the U19 individual championships will clarify any queries arising about the recently published seeding.
We look forward to the return of ESF Championship play for our juniors in April.
Rosie Barry
VP ESF & Chair of Junior Committee