Connor Reinman poses with the championship game board and WCC Committee member John Schultz following his 2024 World Championship victory.

Connor Reinman of Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan repeated as World Crokinole Champion following a victory over Josh Carrafiello of New Hamburg in the final.

For the second year in a row Reinman also defeated 5-time World Champion Justin Slater in the semifinals, while Josh Carrafiello defeated Andrew Hutchinson (last year’s finalist) in dramatic fashion in the other semifinal. With the victory, Connor Reinman becomes the 5th player to ever win multiple World Championships, following Justin Slater’s five victories, Brian Cook’s four, Joe Fulop’s three, and Jon Conrad’s two.

Reinman is a graduate student at Indiana University, where he studies music theory. He attended the event with his significant other, Michelle Astorsdotter, hailing from Sweden, who also studies at Indiana.

The final four contestants of Reinman, Carrafiello, Slater and Hutchinson were flagged as the favourites coming into the World Championships, with all four of them making the semifinals of the Ontario Singles Crokinole Championship one month earlier.

Runner-up Josh Carrafiello won the Cues division at the World Championships last year, before fully converting over into the fingers side of the game. Carrafiello finished ahead of Reinman in the Round of 16, but had a much tougher time advancing into the finals, needing to survive a must-win round against Andrew Hutchinson before making the finals, while Reinman never trailed in his match against Justin Slater.

The final match was tense and well-played even with the extra pressure coming from presence of a photographer from CBC, a film crew from TVO, and numerous spectators. The crucial moment came when Reinman hit a long follow-through 20 on his second to last shot. When Carrafiello missed his next shot, just a simple takeout was needed for Reinman to secure the world title.

Meanwhile, Justin Slater of Guelph defeated Andrew Hutchinson of Kitchener to finish in 3rd place.

The World Crokinole Championship hosted their 23rd annual tournament on Saturday, June 1, 2024 with another year of record setting numbers. 140 boards were in action during singles play and included contestants Japan, Sweden, Australia, 15 US states and 5 provinces. Registrations for the singles action were sold out nearly 6 weeks prior to the tournament.

Justin and Fred Slater also repeated by winning the competitive doubles competition for the second year in a row, and for the fifth time overall. Second place went to Connor Reinman and Jon Conrad of Poole. Andrew Hutchinson and Jeremy Tracey of Elmira were third, while Kris Flossbach of Elmira and Travis Keener of Ohio were fourth.

The Recreational Doubles championship was won by the Vann brothers, Vuth and Voeun, of Kitchener, with second place going to Peter and Cody Carter, third place to Shawn and Kate Hagarty, and fourth place to Mark Harper and Todd Henderson. For Youth Doubles, Ethan and Tyler Buhr of Indiana finished first, with Logan and Leah McComb of Michigan finishing second.

In the Cues division, Marlowe Martin of Elmira and Stuart Martin of Waterloo won the doubles competition. Dave and Dennis Brubacher finished second, Nelson Kuepfer and Jim Nau finished third, and Cameron Jutzi and Merv Roth finished fourth.

In the Cues singles division, Oscar Weber returned to the winner’s circle for the first time since his back-to-back championships in 2004 and 2005. Doug Schwartzentruber of Shakespeare finished second for the second year in a row, while Wayne Kipfer of Millbank finished third, and Dave Brubacher of Listowel finished fourth.

In other singles play, Brent Nielsen won the recreational singles title, Peter Stokoe won the Intermediate division and Ethan Buhr won the Junior division. The Karin Jeske Award for the top female in Competitive Singles was won by Beverley Vaillancourt, with Cathy Kuepfer in second, and Helen Linda in third.