2016 WJUC Final Standings

In Press Release, Press Release * Official Communication, WFDF News by WFDF

[lead]WFDF 2016 World Junior Ultimate Championships (WJUC) Final Standings[/lead]

The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) 2016 World Junior (Under-20) Ultimate Championships (WJUC) concluded Saturday, August 6 with the Canadian Women’s and the USA Men’s teams winning gold at the Polemarsowe Fields in Wroclaw in front of 1,500 enthusiastic local and international spectators. Silver was awarded to the USA Women’s and Canadian Men’s teams. Bronze medals went to the Colombian Women’s team and the Great Britain Men’s team who won the 3rd place game Friday. The Ireland Women’s team and the Australian Men’s team won the Spirit of the Game awards.

The women’s final was held first among these North American rivals and they created an amazing final show. The “Maple Leafs” went into the lead 10-7 but the defending champions surged to tie the match at 10-10. After they exchanged the next three points each, the game went to “universe point” at 14-14. This final point lasted 17 minutes before Anne-Sophie De Baets caught the goal to make Canada the new World Junior Champions.  “It’s amazing. We came with 25 people and everyone worked so hard for our success. We really deserved it,” said Laura Kinoshita, the captain of the winning team.

The Men’s final created perfect opportunity for USA to take revenge on Canada. The beginning was very close but when the American team took the lead to go from 3-3 to 5-3, they never looked back. Team USA topped the Canadians 15-11, with Joe Freund catching the game winning goal for his nation.

A total of 988 athletes representing 49 teams from 29 countries contested the Men’s and Women’s divisions at WJUC, which ran from July 31st, through August 6th. The Tournament brought together the best U20 players from the world, with 640 young men and 348 young women athletes. The full final standings follow.

“It’s great to see the next generation coming up and the level of competition continuing to rise,” said WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch.  “We’ve been hosting juniors’ championships since 1983 and this year represents the greatest number of participating countries ever.  WJUC is being hosted at the same site that Ultimate will be played at The World Games next summer from 19th – 24th July, 2017 and is serving as a test event for the Games.”

The final standngs are available here.

The official tournament web site can be found here.