The biggest reshuffling of the rankings usually happens after each year’s world championships. After the second year of the FPA Worlds in Europe, the rankings go through some major changes this month, including two new entries into the top ten and a new women’s number one.
The Open Rankings highlights:
Dave Lewis/Arthur Coddington: With their Open Pairs win and second place finish in Co-op, Lewis and Coddington not only maintain their top two spots but add to their point totals. At the 2002 world championships, they placed second in Pairs and fourth in Co-op. By replacing those results with better finishes this year, they improve their total.
Tommy Leitner/Paul Kenny: Tommy Leitner reaches an all-time high ranking of number three, sneaking past Paul Kenny by 12 points. Both Leitner and Kenny improved their finishes from 2002. Leitner replaced two fourth places from 2002 with a second and a third. Kenny replaced a third in Co-op with a win this year, but his Pairs finish slipped from third in 2002 to fourth this year.
Clay Collera: Collera has been accumulating big point finishes for the past few years. Playing Paganello each year, taking second in Podersdorf, and finally having two FPA Worlds on his rankings list lifts him into the top 10.
Pat Marron: The best player yet to win an FPA title adds 150 points to his rankings total and jumps to 8. Two second places at the worlds give him a boost this month.
Toddy Brodeur: Toddy’s first FPA Title helps lift him three notches to 9.
Joel Rogers/Ted Oberhaus/Dan Yarnell: Two years ago, Joel Rogers won Open Pairs with Larry Imperiale. This month, points from that win fall off the rankings, so he drops out of the top 10 to 15. Ted Oberhaus loses points from playing the 2002 worlds, but he skipped this year’s worlds so has no new mega-point total to replace them with. He drops four spots to 11. Dan Yarnell has played virtually no events since the 2002 worlds. Now that he has lost those points, his ranking plummets from 15 to 38.
Reto Zimmerman: Like Clay Collera, Reto Zimmerman has played the major European events and both of the past two Worlds. His points from Rimini move him back into the top 20.
Fabio Sanna/Stefano Mestroni: The breakthrough team of this year’s FPA Worlds seedbusted into the Pairs final. Sanna has played more events this year, so he jumps 13 spots into the top 25. Mestroni finally hits the top 100, moving all the way up to 62.
Edoardo Favorini/Alessandro Damiano: They made their first FPA Worlds final and played a strong European season together. Edo is now in the top 30, and Damiano is in the top 40.
Matteo Gaddoni: He missed the Pairs and Co-op finals at the worlds by only one spot, but those finishes were enough to move him up to number 30.
Andrea Meola: On his way to being the best player in Europe, Meola made the podium at Worlds with a third place finish in co-op. Only a disappointing semifinal round in Pairs keeps him from moving up more. Still, he’s now at number 31.
Piccio Cusma: Piccio’s unending energy paid off this season, and his ranking is improving because of it. He moves up twelve spots to 36.
Tommy Gereben: Candidate for comeback player this year. He tied for first in the Austrian championships then made the Open Pairs finals at the Worlds. He would have even more points if he had entered Co-op. His moves up 21 to 49.
Paolo Mirabelli: The first time FPA Worlds finalist in co-op moves from 97 all the way up to 52.
The Japanese: During the Worlds, the results of the Japanese championships arrived. None of the participants had been ranked before. The winners enter the rankings list at 91.
The Women’s Rankings Highlights:
New Number One: By sweeping Women’s and Mixed, Lisa Hunrichs Silvey squeaks by Cindy Kruger to reclaim the number one women’s ranking.
Judy Robbins: Much to our chagrin, Judy Robbins is out of competition with a serious knee injury. It’s unclear whether she will return to jamming or competition any time soon. Her 2002 results fall off the rankings list, dropping her from number 2 down to number 7.
Sarah Bergman: Her relentless journey up the women’s rankings continues as Sarah Bergman moves up from 10 to 8.
Hila Yaniv: Hila Yaniv approaches the top ten, moving from 27 to 11.