Ontario U23 Championships a Big
Success > Jason Robinson
In July the Toronto Ultimate Club hosted the WFDF 2013 World Under-23 Ultimate Championships at York University. 36 teams from 17 nations participated in 3 divisions: Open, Women’s and Mixed. This included 7 European countries, 2 countries from Asia, 2 from Australasia, 2 from South America, 2 from North America, and 2 from Central America. The championships not only provided a wonderful collection of diversity and spirit, but some exceptional Ultimate as well.
Hosting the event began 18 months in advance and involved a considerable amount of planning, meetings, communications, documentation, trials and tribulations. Our Tournament Organizing Committee, comprised of TUC member volunteers, were up to the task and delivered an event for the ages. 179 volunteers fulfilled over 3000 hours of volunteer support to the championships, often arriving at the crack of dawn or working late to ensure that the athletes were well tended to. Supporting partners also helped to make the event a huge success: VC Ultimate, Steam Whistle Pilsner, Zuluru, NexGen, Discraft, Awake Chocolate, the Toronto Rush, Daredevil Discs, IamUltimate, the Orange Snail & Underground Pub at York U, Ultimate Canada, the City of Toronto and Tourism Toronto.
The Opening Ceremonies were a brilliant start to the Championships, featuring team introductions, delegate speeches, and a First Nations drum and dance performance. One of the best photos of the tournament features a Japanese player completely upsidedown while doing somersaults during his team introduction. It can be found here:
http://wfdf2013-u23.com/news/photos/ showcase1. The opening kickoff game, Canada vs. Great Britain Open, was an electric start to Championships.
Throughout each day of competition, live scores were tweeted and posted instantaneously,
REGIONAL INTEREST
and relayed to our Tournament Central Booth where scores, schedules and brackets were also posted. Players, coaches, officials, fans and spectators were provided with up-to-the-minute results throughout the tournament both online and on-site. 40 games were streamed during the week. Locally a number of media magnates covered the event. Ultiworld and Skyd magazine had a strong presence at the tournament including photos, daily highlights and opinion articles. In places like Venezuela, the U23 Championships made the national news.
Congratulations to our three Canadian teams who captured two silver medals and a bronze medal and made us very proud. As hosts it was exciting to see our national teams medal and provide the hometown fans with a week of excitement. Thanks to the Women’s team for one heck of a choreographed dance too. After Eight long days of magic our work was done. We experienced a few roadblocks along the way (a field irrigation issue and rowdy Saturday night party come to mind), but our team conquered them with an upbeat and professional attitude each time. TUC is extremely proud to have represented our great City, the Province of Ontario and of course this awesome land we call Canada.
Our mission was to host an elite event that united young adult Ultimate players from around the world and provide them with an unforgettable Ultimate experience that was safe, welcoming and worry-free. We wished to set the bar for WFDF events moving forward and raise the U23 Championships to a standard
Calum Mackenzie of Team Canada Ultimate Canada Magazine -
www.canadianultimate.com
Photo - Gavin Thompson 35
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