break lead at 15-13. They scored on O then broke once again to tie the game up at 15, after which we traded O points to see the score at 16-16 in a game that would have been to 17 had the win by two rule not come into play. At 16 all Japan came down and broke our O-line, to be ahead but not victorious at 17-16 for Japan. Some of our players actually thought that was the game, but upon realizing they still had a chance snapped into killer mode. Our offence took the pressure in stride where a break would lose the game, and they had just let off a couple. Andre Gailits made a fantastic, falling, bobbling catch in the endzone, after his defender got a piece of the disc, to score
OPEN 1. Canada 2. Japan 3. Germany 4. Colombia 5. Australia 6. Great Britain 7. Switzerland 8. Sweden 9. Finland 10. Austria 11. Russia 12. Ireland 13. France 14.
Italy 15. Slovakia
WOMEN'S 1. Australia 2. Japan 3. Great Britain 4. Canada 5. Colombia 6. Ireland 7. Finland 8. Germany
14
and tie the game at 17. We all now knew it would be a game to 19, this was it. First the Japanese O-line got it done by giving their D-line a game point for the win by break, but our Offence would hold their own to tie the game at 18 and give Canada our only chance to win it on a break. The entire tournament came down to
this Universe Point, us on D for all the marbles. Aaron saved his best pull for last floating one back into the corner of the endzone from out the back and side. This started Japan off just five feet from the back corner of their endzone. With some hard handler pressure they managed to move it to the front of their endzone after three passes, then they got into some trouble. At about a 6 or 7 count they looped up a high swing cross field. Mark Lloyd had a beat on the disc right away and accelerated past his check to make a two hand catch block above his head just 4 yards from the endzone. Right away Lloyd dumps the disc off to Dan Danzig with no open looks and his check leaning on him earned a foul after a couple of fakes. With no contest both teams took the stoppage to organize for 10 seconds. I yelled to Adrian Yearwood who would become the front of the stack in the endzone once the disc was tapped back in, “Go get the disc.” He nodded. Our
dump went up line covered. Adrian made a couple of steps downfield as if going to fill dump, then as he does so well changed direction slashing a 7 cut horizontally towards the front cone just a few feet from the endzone line. Danzig who was being forced flick only 6 yards from that sideline saw Adrian get steps and with a nice low lunging Dad he sat the disc out in front of Adrian 3 feet from the sideline. Adrian leapt, caught and with some fancy footwork jetted his right leg across his body and over about 2 feet to land it clearly in the corner of the endzone. We did it, World Champions at the Inaugural U23’s just like that. Rushing the field in a blaze of glory
unlike any other feeling, we chased down Adrian and the other 27 or rather 26 other sprinting players, Lloyd just sat down in the endzone in disbelief. Mike Jones coming from the close sideline and me from the far collided en route to the huddle at the back, taking each other out at the ankles, with beaming smiles neither of us felt pain we hugged on the ground then stood up to find the crowd around Adrian and Danzig. I went leaping into that pile of joy before heading over to maul Lloyd with a sizable crowd. The jubilation of that victory will inspire me to success for the rest of my life of this I’m sure. Receiving medals would follow a spirit circle with the Japanese, one of the most bittersweet moments trying to contain your excitement and joy in front of 22 emotional men. Their coach most emotional of all had trouble giving us a speech. Mostly hugs over handshakes were exchanged as the amount of respect we all had for our opponents was huge.
Ultimate Canada Magazine —
www.canadianultimate.com
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