I’m sure like most people the thought of going to Colombia for any reason let alone to referee in a Squash tournament is a little intimidating to say the least. I even work in an office one day a week with Latin American employees and some of their comments were not encouraging. Anyway, having literally traveled around the world, I was glad I decided to make the trip, as Medellin is a very beautiful city.

Most of the players and referees traveled to Medellin through Miami. Since we were paying our own fare and I live in South Florida it was cheaper for me to fly from Ft. Lauderdale/Bogata/Medellin on the Colombian airline Avianca. While waiting in Bogata for a flight to Medellin, I saw Samantha Teran (who was the eventual singles champion and had won a Florida WISPA event) and the rest of the Mexico team. Fortunately for me, because of delays we didn’t get to Medellin until 1:30am and as no one was there to meet me, the Mexican team graciously offered to give me a lift to the hotel (thank you very much). My apologies to Sheldon Anderson for disturbing his sleep at 3:00 a.m.

The hotel we stayed at was the Intercontinental which was literally a 5-minute walk up a hill to the Country Club Ejecutivos where most of the matches were being held. The club had 10 courts on two levels with elevated platforms for the referees and markers. There were also matches being played on a glass court, which was 30 minutes away downtown at Parque del Ajedrez which was also home for the main soccer stadium. We had a total of 25 referees and had a marker and referee for all matches. To avoid nationality conflicts the matches were assigned in the morning. Nelson Neto was the tournament director and he was being assisted by Ben Harris. Our host at the club was Marta Luz Vega who did an amazing job keeping things running smoothly.

I had heard that the South Americans can be quite noisy when it comes to supporting their national teams and I was not disappointed. Fortunately we had enough referees from other countries to mark and referee these without any bias. The Colombian matches had plenty of local support especially against Argentina which got a little heated because of the inexperience of local referees. There was a similar match between Canada and Mexico which got a little controversial with the referee, but still managed to produce an outstanding Squash match.

One of the nice things about this tournament was the quality of the Squash and player attitude from all the countries. Also, as the President of Florida Squash and a Regional referee, renewing old acquaintances from past events and travels was another plus.

I’d like to say a very special thank you to Elizabeth, Diego and Juan for all their help and translations as they really helped to make a difference to our experience at the club and Medellin in general. They also helped organize a shopping trip to El Hueco, which is a small town with thousands of shops like a huge flea market covering several blocks. A couple of the USA women players, Hope and Dana bought some souvenirs and posed for some tourist pictures while Grant and I tried to purchase Adidas Stabiles. Unfortunately, all I kept hearing was el grande, somehow I don’t think a size 12 was very popular in Colombia.

Medellin is a very beautiful city and the people we met were very friendly and helpful. I look forward to my next trip and to return some day. Special thanks to Marta Luz Vega, Lina, Maria, Andrea and Carlos who were all very helpful. The sights, the atmosphere and the Squash were all just great.

Steven F Grotowski,
President, Florida Squash Racquets Association
US Squash Regional Referee