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WJUC

LIVE STREAMING SCHEDULE

WELCOME TO

MONDAY 7/21

Welcome to Lecco, Italy and welcome to the WJUC tournament newsletter, part of Skyd

Magazine’s coverage of WJUC 2014. We’re going to be bringing you news, recaps,

photos, interviews, and other fun stuff over the next week. If you have any comments,

suggestions, or things you think we should include in the newsletter, please send us an

email at newsletter@skydmagzine.com. We’d love to hear from you.

-Adam and Rachel

* Free stream

All times in Central European Time Zone

OPEN

Visit www.Skydmagazine.com to access.

World Junior Ultimate Championships

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9:30 Canada vs. Japan Open

13:30 Colombia vs. Great Britain Women’s

17:30 Colombia vs Russia* Open

Opening Ceremonyphoto by Ultiphotos

World Junior Ultimate Championships

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STANDINGS

POOL A

POOL C

POOL B

POOL B

United States

Austria

Israel

Switzerland

Finland

Spain

Canada

Great Britain

Japan

Ireland

New Zealand

Netherlands

Colombia

Sweden

Australia

Italy

Russia

Latvia

Germany

France

Czech Republic

Belgium

Chinese Taipei

Poland

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W L S A D

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W = games won L = games lost S = points scored A = points allowed D = point differential

The 2014 World Junior Ultimate Championships officially opened on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Lecco. Players, from two dozen countries and four divisions, marched through the city into Stadio Rigamonti-Ceppi for the opening ceremonies. The opening ceremonies featured a marching band, as well as a local dance team. Several teams, most notably the Ireland and Israel boys, joined in as the dancers performed their routine.

Following the opening ceremony, a packed stadium watched the women of hosts Italy defeat Ireland in the tournament’s first game. The open division starts play Monday morning, as 500 athletes representing 24 countries will compete for the world title.

At the 2012 World Junior Ultimate Championships in Dublin, Ireland, the United States Junior Open team won their fifth consecutive gold medal. A surprising Colombia took silver, while Canada claimed the bronze medal.

This year’s tournament sees 24 teams divided into four pools of six teams each. After round-robin pool play, the top team in each pool will advance to the quarterfinals, while the second and third place teams will need to win a prequarter crossover game to reach the top 8 and the championship bracket.

In Pool A, Austria, Israel, Finland, and Spain will look to upset the United States, the top-seeded team in the tournament. Colombia will battle Sweden, Australia, Italy, Russia, and Latvia in Pool B. A mostly English-speaking Pool C features Canada, Great Britain, Japan, Ireland, New Zealand, and the Netherlands. And Pool D, with some classic rivalries, rounds out the field with Germany, France, Czech Republic, Belgium, Chinese Taipei, and Poland.

Here are some predictions from our Skyd Magazine staff:

Bryan Jones (Skyd Commentator)Gold - United StatesSilver - CanadaBronze - AustraliaSurprise Team - Great Britain

Adam Lerman (Skyd Editor)Gold - United StatesSilver - CanadaBronze - ColombiaSurprise Team - Finland

Ráchel Tošnerová (Skyd Commentator)Gold - ColombiaSilver - GermanyBronze - United StatesSurprise Team - Finland

Open Divison Previewby Adam Lerman

Opening Ceremonyphoto by Ultiphotos

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ROUND 4 3:30 p.m.

Germany vs. Chinese TaipeiFrance vs. Belgium

Czech Republic vs. PolandCanada vs. New Zealand

Great Britain vs. IrelandJapan vs. Netherlands

United States vs. FinlandAustria vs. Switzerland

Israel vs. Spain

Field

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ROUND 2 11:30 a.m.

United States vs. IsraelAustria vs. Finland

Switzerland vs. SpainColombia vs. Australia

Sweden vs. RussiaItaly vs. Latvia

Field

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ROUND 5 5:30 p.m.

Colombia vs. Russia*Sweden vs. Italy

Australia vs. Latvia

Field

World Junior Ultimate Championships

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Lecco, Italy

PLAYER SPOTLIGHTEoghan Cronin, IRELAND

“We’ve been training a lot for this. We’ve put in a lot of effort and we do want to win games and move up the rankings. It’s Juniors, so we want to have fun and get what we can out of it. Just have the craic, basically.

“There are two teams that I’d love to play. I’d love to play USA just to get the experience out of it. To see what they’re like when they’re actually on the field with you. And I’d love to play Great Britain, just to beat them. To try to say that we have that. They’re an experienced team and a lovely bunch of guys too.”

SCHEDULE Monday, July 21

ROUND 1 9:30 a.m.

Canada vs. Japan*Great Britain vs. New Zealand

Ireland vs. NetherlandsGermany vs. Czech Republic

France v.s. Chinese TaipeiBelgium vs. Poland

Field

*Live streaming game. Visit www.Skydmagazine.com to access.

WOMEN’S

World Junior Ultimate Championships

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STANDINGS

POOL Q

POOL S

POOL R

POOL T

Colombia

Australia

Great Britain

Latvia

Italy

Canada

Russia

Poland

Ireland

United States

Japan

France

Israel

Netherlands

Germany

Austria

Finland

New Zealand

Switzerland

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W L S A D

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W = games won L = games lost S = points scored A = points allowed D = point differential

Team Japanphoto by Ultiphotos

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ROUND 5 5:30 p.m.

Japan vs. IsraelAustria vs. New Zealand

Italy vs. RussiaCanada vs. Poland

Field

World Junior Ultimate Championships

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The first game of the tournament is finally here. Featuring the Italian women’s team against Ireland, the stands are packed as the showcase game follows the opening ceremony. There is a bit of wind but the rain has stopped and the evening is offering perfect conditions for ultimate. Both teams are warming up on the field and the crowd is getting excited.

The first half is dominated by the hosts. The Italians obviously know something about pleasing the fans and keep giving them what they want – well executed long throws to the end zone, which sometimes result in the huck-and-D type of play. The Irish team is forced to quickly give up their strategy of short throws and trying to stop in-cuts. Although they have several opportunities to put the disc in the end zone, it rarely ends in the hands of their teammates. Not even great defensive plays (poach by No. 59 Aine Gilheany in the end zone) preventing fast points help the Irish to bring the score up. For the last two points, Italy has been playing zone defense and at 8-0 Ireland takes a time-out. With new energy the girls come back on the field and after a handblock by No. 11 Kate Crowley very close to the end zone, she immediately

scores the first point for Ireland. But the Italians don’t allow any surprises and take half 9-1.

The second half brings out the best in both teams. The Italians show that beside long throws they can also patiently pass the disc around. The Irish stop worrying about prepared plays and seem to follow the rule: “The more throws in the end zone, the more chances to score.” That works just fine as they also concentrate on leaving no space for any more dangerous hucks from Italy. And they manage to score two more points before Italy decides to take a time out. No. 10 Lavinia Recchioni then puts the Italian team back on track with a great layout catch in the end zone bringing the score to 13-3. The final score is 17-4 and both team leave the field with little more experience and a great feeling of having done their best.

No. 23 Frederica Cipriani sums up the tough moments for her team:

“I think the hardest part in this game was playing in this wind, because we are usually not very good at playing in the wind and I feel like we also had a few problems with our defense against the Irish team. But otherwise I think our game was great!”

Day 1 Recapby Ráchel Tošnerová

PLAYER SPOTLIGHTJo Lewis and Erin McGready, Great BritainJo: “Our team played the Tour2 tournament, which was really good, because it’s so nice to play together before coming here to get all the little niggles out of the way and work well together. We just want to do as best as we can but winning would of course be good. We would like to play against Ireland if we can, because they’re really fun and easy to communicate with. We played them twice last year already. And also Australia, because we two years ago we lost to them at sudden death, so that would be such a good game.”

Erin: “We think that being native English speakers can sometimes be a disadvantage during the game when the other teams can call plays that we don’t understand, whereas they understand some of ours. So they’ve got that sly... When we’re speaking English we’ve got no idea if they’re in on it.”

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ROUND 3 1:30 p.m.

Colombia vs. Great Britain*Japan vs. France

Austria vs. Finland

Field

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ROUND 2 11:30 a.m.

Canada vs. RussiaIreland vs. Poland

Australia vs. Latvia

Field

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ROUND 4 3:30 p.m.

United States vs. NetherlandsGermany vs. Switzerland

Field

SCHEDULE Monday, July 21

ROUND 1 9:30 a.m.

Germany vs. New ZealandFinland vs. SwitzerlandUnited States vs. IsraelFrance vs. Netherlands

Field

*Live streaming game. Visit www.Skydmagazine.com to access.