Dramatic match in American Football
USA experienced the ultimate sporting embarrassment yesterday, going down to Germany yesterday in the sport that they invented, named after themselves and popularised across the world. You would have thought that American athletes, who have spent a lifetime playing American Football (an invitational sport at The World Games 2017), would have recorded a comfortable victory against the Europeans at the Olympic Stadium, but Germany (yes you read it right, Germany!) shocked their illustrious opponents 14-13. With the American quarterback having a shocking game throwing for four interceptions, some present at the match must have been wondering if the American players had even handled a football before.
The USA does have a chance to exact revenge for the humiliation, with the next edition of The World Games taking place in Birmingham, Alabama in 2021. They may medal when they meet Poland in the bronze final on Monday but that will be little consolation for the distraught American players. In recognition of the sport's new masters, perhaps it should be renamed German Football.
Thai athletes enjoy The World Games
Thailand athletes may have come a long way from Asia, to compete in The World Games 2017, but they are enjoying every minute of their time in Wroclaw. The Air Sports has seen one of the youngest competitors at The World Games, with Paramotor slalom athlete Janejira Chui-Noei just 14 years of age. Despite her tender years, she has put in some impressive performances against athletes far more experienced than her. She ranked 6th out of 17 competitors in task seven, and had the joy of seeing her name jointly top the leaderboard for task six.
She was interviewed on site after the competition ended.
Fellow Thai athlete Viparat Vituteerasan has also had a very rewarding experience in Poland. The heavyweight sumo wrestler suffered a quarter final loss to Ivanna Berezovska, but successfully navigated her way through the repechage rounds. In the bronze medal match, she again faced up to the Ukrainian wrestler. The Thai athlete looked to be in danger of leaving the dojo, but she produced an outstanding throw to claim the final place on the medal podium.
Viparat proudly presenting her medal at the venue.
Bowling: Women’s doubles day
Qualifying round
16 countries started the qualifying rounds in a four pool match system divided by the top seeds from the last World Championships. Each country played one on one matches of two games with the other three teams in their pool. Points were allocated for a win or a draw with the top point scorers moving on to the quarter finals. Mexico, Singapore, Colombia, Canada, Germany, Venezuela, Finland and the USA made it through. Knocked out were The Ukraine, Great Britain, host nation Poland, Chinese Taipei, China, Japan, Denmark and competition favourites Korea.
1st match highlights
It was an easy win for Korea against host nation Poland with the team scoring a total of 975 pins across two games to Poland’s 747 pins.
It was a very close contest in the Finland versus Denmark match and despite Denmark’s Britt Brondsted scoring the first 300 of the day, Finland won by a nose, with the final score of 908 to Denmark’s 905.
2nd match highlights
With fewer close games than in match one, the competition saw relatively easy defeats across the board. The surprises came from Finland’s team beating the USA with 903 pins to USA’s 820 and then Canada’s women’s team beating the Koreans with 943 pins to Korea’s 903.
3rd match highlights
Heading into the tenth frame of the last game three teams were on a tie in pool D but with the very last balls thrown, Finland made a narrow win against Japan which led them to top seed in the pool.
Quarter finals
The quarter finals saw an American zone domination with Europe and Asia knocked out for their chance to play in the semifinals. Each country played a two game match where the country with the highest pin fall qualified for the next round. The USA team took an easy win over Germany, Colombia dominated over Singapore, Mexico beat Canada and Venezuela ended Finland’s solid scores beating them by just 41 pins.
USA will now play Mexico and Venezuela will go up against Colombia in the semifinal matches.