Big fun at the 2015 World Footbag Championships in Copenhagen
Freestyle AKISPHÈRE2015
The Copenhagen club took charge of Worlds in 2015 and they had a real good benefit for them, the gym complex at Norrebrohallen didn't cost them a penny. This being said the crew was all freestylers and the net side suffered a little bit from it. No umpire chair was planned, no microphones for the rufferies until I rushed the organisation to provide for some. The women played the finals matches while calling their own scores. No music was provided between matches and / or games, this was very improvised. Also the planning of the tournament was kind of insulting for the net players: There was some freestyle events planned for the day of the finals (Sick 3 ++) that made freestyle players unavailable to watch our finals matches when an unsignificant event, 2 square was on the books for Thursday, this could have been left for the last day. Overall the gym was good and the facilities great, the little restaurant had free sandwiches for players which came handy for someone like me who has to play and film.
Here's a recap of the finals
Women singles net finals
Competitors:Piia Tantarimäki from Finland - Club Footbag Finland vs Marilyn Demuy from Montreal, Canada - Club Aki Québec
Format Best of 5 games to 15 points, rallye scoring
Piia Tantarimäki was in great shape this year and she went all the way in the 3 possible women's net categories winning singles, doubles and mixed. She faced Marilyn Demuy in the finals for a relatively easy win. In 2014 Piia kind of choked at the end of her match with Genveviève Bousquet but she wouldn't let that happen this time around. She controlled the points most of the time whereas Marilyn was missing a lot or hitting to the middle of the court. Of course Marilyn had a serious accident three months before the event and couldn't train much, that would have made the match a little more interesting. Still the Finn player deserves the utmost respect for what she accomplished, she was the player to beat in 2015.
Tantarimäki wins: 15-8 15-9 15-10
Open singles net finals
Competitors:Karim Daouk, Lausanne, Switzerland - Club Les Pieds à Gilles vs
Tuomas Kärki, Helsinki, Finland - Club Footbag Finland.
Format Best of 5 games to 15 points, rallye scoring
This finals was a redraw of the 2013 battle from Montreal Worlds. The contenders took care of the 2014 finalists in the semi finals: Karim took down Florian Götze from Frankfurt Germany and Tuomas bled the 2014 champ, Walt Houston dry, in, possibly, the best match of the week. Karim had the upper hand, at first winning the 2 first sets pretty easily but then he had problems serving in the court in the third and fourth sets. The stage was set for a dramatic 5th set in which Daouk prevailed but not after breaking a serious sweat. This was pretty entertaining as well.
Daouk wins in 5 tough sets 15-11 15-10 10-15 14-16 16-14
Women doubles net finals
Competitors:Piia Tantarimäki from Finland - Club Footbag Finland + Kerstin Anhuth from Frankfurt, Germany - Club Frankfurt Footbag e.v. vs
Yulia Klouda from Moscow - Club Footbag Russia + Shirine Daouk from Lausanne, Switzerland - Club Les Pieds à Gilles
Format: Best of 3 to 15 points, side out scoring
Very unfortunately the finals match just didn't happen due to a bad achilles tendon injury to Yulia Klouda. Very unfortunate also for Mrs Daouk who had her first chance at a Worlds title if I'm correct. I think this could have been an interesting battle as Yulia was playing, in my opinion, her best footbag ever and Shirine has some spectacular spikes down her sleeve. Piia and Kerstin on the other hand were clearly the favorites for this contest having much more experience and team chemistry built over time.
Piia Tantarimäki and Kerstin Anhuth by forfait
Mixed doubles net finals
Competitors:Piia Tantarimäki + Matti Pohjola from Finland - Club Footbag Finland vs
Florian Götze + Kerstin Anhuth from Frankfurt, Germany - Club Frankfurt Footbag e.v.
Format: Best of 3 to 15 points, side out scoring
The 2014 champions were on the court, were they gonna repeat? They did, brilliantly, after winning the first set not so easily and loosing the second with too many mistakes they finished very strongly in the third game while being in control the whole time. This was really Piia's year as that title confirmed her triple crown, an accomplishment very rarely done in the past. Matti was solid as always, you can count on this guy to limit the number of unforced errors. The germans could have played a little better and I thought that they would win it after the second set but too many mistaked sinked them down.
Finland wins it by 15-12 10-15 15-9
Open doubles net finals
Competitors:Florian Götze from Frankfurt, Germany - Club Frankfurt Footbag e.v. + Yves Kreil from Berlin, Germany - Club FC Footstar vs Janne Uusitalo + Matti Pohjola respectively from Helsinki and Turku, Finland - Club Footbag Finland
Format: Best of 3 to 15 points, side out scoring
This match was featuring the winners of the 2012 Worlds, Yves and Florian vs the finalists of 2011 Worlds, Janne and Matti, so a lot of experience on the court. The Finns are known for their reliability, making very few unforced errors if not the biggest spikers on the tour. The Germans on the other hand have a lot of firepower. Florian Götze is the best player of the last decade and Yves, although he can be wild at times, is flying over the net. The battle was very interesting in the first set with a lot of momentum changes and an unpredictable result in the making. Both teams were taking care of their own when it was time to take their side outs. This set finally went to the Germans who built confidence over that win. The second set was very disputed for a while but then Flo and Yves flew away with the victory. Lots of good spikes and sets but where was the defence in that match? As my friend JF Lemieux noticed there was not a lot of digging in that match and this wasn't the best tournament for defence. The spiking was good but were not talking about roll spikes here. A good mention to the Finnish supporters, they brought a lot of fun and good vibes to the finals day.
Germany wins the title in two sets 15-13 15-8
If you want to see the complete matches don't forget that they are available on demand on Vimeo/ProKicker
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