Hey all Just thought I'd post something out about World Games. Thanks to all the supporters in Clapham - hope you enjoyed the game as much as we enjoyed playing it.
World Games was excellently organised and I really felt like I was part of an Olympic team. We played on beautiful pitches, and the atmosphere was fantastic - we met many athletes from all over the world who were genuinely interested in Frisbee and how to play. We were given free tickets to watch other sports, (including Korfball, Sumo Wrestling, Inline Hockey, Fistball etc.) and many of these athletes came and watched us play. Australia started the first day well - we knew we had a big day ahead of us - playing Finland, Japan and Canada in a must win situation. The games were to 13, and weren't timed. Finland didn't look the complete team and went down early. Japan was a much harder game - fast, some amazing long plays, but we eventually shut them down and they were pretty disappointed. Australia had a tall team and so we played the height advantage, although they had a great long game and as usual awesome disc skills. Then, straightaway we played Canada - it was an incredibly hard game with their big guns firing early. We played sweet offence though, and the game had a low turnover count. We were constantly trading during the game and then finally hit the hard cap of 15. Sudden death and we scored! I cannot tell you what that was like - to finally break the hoodoo of beating a north american team. I felt like we'd won World Games already. Our real advantage was strong fast women - we shut down their women quite well and they didn't see much of the disc. With three wins up our belt, we knew we were in the final, due to Canada's earlier loss to the US. The next day, as part of our round robin, we played US and then Germany - both dead rubbers. However, we needed to get the measure of the US and so we went out all guns blazing and lost in sudden death. A great achievement and excellent psychological advantage heading into the final. They were beatable and we could do it. So finals day finally arrived and it was pretty nerve racking. Knowing it was going out live on TV didn't help and we had a huge crowd supporting us. It was a really clean game - only 6 turnovers from the aussie team and 5 from the US, but a few errors cost us the game. It was all over so quickly. Silver medal isn't so bad though, and we even had a medal ceremony which was fun. Very disappointed to lose though - as I know we could have won. Conclusions from this? 1 - Spirit of the Game kicks ass! We had no referees - really clean games and proved to watching IOC officials that all games (especially a hard fought final) can be played without a referee and with great sportsmanship. This is the best aspect of our sport and we should do all we can to preserve it. 2 - We (Australia and GB) are closer than ever to consistently beating the north american teams - it's only a matter of time. For the first time I saw the individual players as mark-ups, rather than a team on a pedestal. This was a great experience for Australia, and surely an indication of the quality of Clubs will be next year in Perth. Book your places now! p.s That 'Greatest' was the GREATEST thing I've seen. I was 30 yards downfield and it was hilarious! the US couldn't quite believe what had happened. Gack is a machine! Diana Iceni/Team Australia This e-mail (and any attachment) is intended only for the attention of the addressee(s). Its unauthorised use, disclosure, storage or copying is not permitted. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroy all copies and inform the sender by return e-mail. Internet e-mail is not a secure medium. Any reply to this message could be intercepted and read by someone else. Please bear that in mind when deciding whether to send material in response to this message by e-mail. This e-mail (whether you are the sender or the recipient) may be monitored, recorded and retained by the Department For Constitutional Affairs. E-mail monitoring / blocking software may be used, and e-mail content may be read at any time. You have a responsibility to ensure laws are not broken when composing or forwarding e-mails and their contents. The original of this email was scanned for viruses by the Government Secure Intranet (GSi) virus scanning service supplied exclusively by Energis in partnership with MessageLabs. On leaving the GSi this email was certified virus-free __________________________________________________ BritDisc mailing list BritDisc@near.me.uk http://zion.ranulf.net/mailman/listinfo/britdisc Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/informed.asp
