The competition included flying disc athletes from across Europe and America competing in 4 Pro divisions (Open Pairs, Co-op, Mixed Pairs and Womens Pairs). The players performed 4 and 5 minute routines choreographed to music where they attempted to pull off some of the most radical moves possible. This year also featured an intermediate division where new players got a chance to perform. Thousands of fans came out to cheer them on and to witness the worlds best players compete for the sport's biggest prize!
In the Open Pairs division Dave Lewis and Arthur Coddington edged out Tommy Leitner and Pat Marron to defend their title. In the Open Co-op division saw the team of Larry Imperiale, Paul Kenny and Toddy Broduer beat Dave Lewis, Arthur Coddington and Pat Marron by the closest possible margin ".1". In the Womens Pairs & Mixed Divisions Lisa Silvey and Cindy Kruger & Lisa Silvey and Matt Gauthier had decisive wins in their respective divsions.
"Wow, what a wild ride!"
The FPA Worlds in Italy
are over and for 2 years in a row the feeling of
the crowd, the new players and the spirit of the
jam was electric! This year saw a few less
American players travel to Europe but we also saw
many new European players - Fabio and Stefano
from Trieste,
Gaia, Sara, Alice and Matteo from Torino, Hila,
Lusti, Oriel and Intermediate champ Amit from
Israel,
Tommy from Austria, Mauro and Luca from Rome,
Andrea Jaderyd from Sweden, and Andrea Stazi and
Danilo from Milan.
The tidal wave of jamming began weeks before with successful events in the UK and Amsterdam.
The Extreme sports festival in the UK brought freestyle to a new stage and the promoters were stoked! Thanks to Fabio Sanna from Trieste and Jan Soerenson Copenhagen for travelling to the UK to help kick-start the sport in England.
Amsterjam was over the top in terms of fun and player turnout. It was amazing to see so many players from countries previously not known for freestyle: there were 9 players from Germany and 5 from France!
Add to that a large US contingent and players from Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, Denmark and Italy and in the end there were 45 Amster-jammers!
After a few days of rest the the players headed for Italy and the FPA Worlds began with a great turnout of players - I believe 58 in total including some new jammers competing in new intermediate division.
The event ran smoothly and after 3 full days of competition the last team completing their routine just minutes before dusk the partying began. The weekend saw new players and veterans challenge themselves and test the limits of their skills. The wind was not too strong this year but it was tricky since the stage was over a hundred meters from the water where the wind was the best.
The new jam team of Fabio and Stefano from Trieste executed under pressure and made the finals while other solid teams like Matteo and Rodney, Edoardo and Alessandro, Piccio and Andrea Meola and Stefan and Joakim battled changing winds but could not complete enough moves to make the finals cut.
In the co-op division every team was new except the grrrl-power team of Mary, Cindy and Lisa who had competed before and just missed making the finals at the Worlds in Boston in 2002. But this year they fired up and hit their routine making the finals by just barely edging out the Swedish masters Joakim, Stefan and Roland for a ticket to the show.
The other co-op pool was even more difficult with 2 solid teams not making finals: Jeff, Pipo and Reto and Piccio, Meola and Rodney were suprised by Lorenzo, Edoardo and Alessandro's very entertaining and ambitious routine. Fellow Roman jammer Paolo hooked up with Matt and Randy and also made the finals in co-op - Paolo has a really good feel for spont-hein-eous play which prooved to be a good fit for Matt and Randy's 'spank and scurry' style.
In the finals I saw the only the Women and Mixed teams play as I was warming up during the other rounds:
The women's final saw the overwhelming favorites Cindy and Lisa take nothing for granted. Play it safe? No way! They went for their hardest stuff hitting complicated against the spin co-ops and hein indys - they crushed their routine bringing the crowd to their feet - belissima!
The mixed final was much more competitive with Lori and Paul hitting a very entertaining routine, Larry and Mary getting hot in the wind and Dave and Cindy hitting lots of big moves and co-ops...but in the end what may have been the routine of the weekend - if not the year - Matt and Lisa hit and hit and hit co-op after co-op, move after move - wind change, no problem - angle change no problem. They stayed consecutive in very challenging conditions and never lost the flow winning the mixed pairs final convincingly.
The results for the Open pairs and co-op finals were as close as could be - congrats to all the winners and especially to new World Champs Matt Gauthier and Toddy Brodeur! I have to compliment all the players for keeping the spirit of the game flying high all weekend: for example... Fernando helped mentor his freestyle students Luca and Mauro playing with them in co-op, Matt and Randy gave Paolo and opportunity to shred with the big boys, Rodney Sanchez let his crust rub off on newcomers Matteo and Piccio, Alan Caplin hooked up with young guns Oriel and Lusti and John Titcombe with Hila and Jan: Great to see the veteran jammers 'spread the crust'. - lets keep it going on to Seattle!
Once again many, many thanks to the Cota & Tequilla staff and to Jumpi, Clay and Lui for running "eventi magnifico"!
-
- Tom
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Womens Pairs
1. Cindy Kruger/Lisa Hunrichs Silvey (66.4)
2. Sarah Bergman/Mary Lowry (51.1)
3. Lori Daniels/Bethany Sanchez (45.7)
4. Qxhna Titcomb/Hila Yaniv (scratch)
Open Co-op
1. Toddy Brodeur/Larry Imperiale/Paul Kenny (66.7)
2. Arthur Coddington/Dave Lewis/Pat Marron (66.6)
3. Clay Collera/Tommy Leitner/Andrea Meola (60.4)
4. Matt Gauthier/Paolo Mirabelli/Randy Silvey (58.1)
5. Cindy Kruger/Mary Lowry/Lisa Hunrichs Silvey (51.3)
6. Lorenzo Apriani/Alessandro Damiano/Edoardo Favorini (48.5)
Mixed Pairs
1. Lisa Hunrichs Silvey/Matt Gauthier (67.1)
2. Cindy Kruger/Dave Lewis (63.3)
3. Mary Lowry/Larry Imperiale (57.9)
4. Lori Daniels/Paul Kenny (56.6)
5. Sarah Bergman/Jeff Kruger (50.6)
6. Qxhna Titcomb/Toddy Brodeur (44.1)
Open Pairs
1. Dave Lewis/Arthur Coddington (68.4)
2. Tommy Leitner/Pat Marron (67.7)
3. Larry Imperiale/Jeff Kruger (62.2)
4. Paul Kenny/Reto Zimmerman (60.1)
5. Matt Gauthier/Randy Silvey (59.5)
6. Clay Collera/Tommy Gereben (56.7)
7. Toddy Brodeur/Pipo Lopez (56.2)
8. Stefano Mestroni/Fabio Sanna (56.1)
Intermediate Final
1. Amit Peled (23.0 points)
2. Paolo Magni (22.3)
3. Pietro Serra (21.9)
4. Luca Viola (21.2)
5. Matteo Ceresa (20.8)
6. Sara Cordero (18.4)
Mixed Pairs Semi
1T. Cindy Kruger/Dave Lewis (68.0)
1T. Lori Daniels/Paul Kenny (68.0)
3. Lisa Silvey/Matt Gauthier (67.1)
4. Sarah Bergman/Jeff Kruger (60.6)
5. Mary Lowry/Larry Imperiale (57.0)
6. Qxhna Titcomb/Toddy Brodeur (56.8)
7. Bethany Sanchez/Rodney Sanchez (56.4)
8. Hila Yaniv/Edoardo Favorini (45.7)
Co-op Semi Pool A
1. Arthur Coddington/Dave Lewis/Pat Marron (71.89)
2. Matt Gauthier/Paolo Mirabelli/Randy Silvey (65.3)
3. Lorenzo Apriani/Edoardo Favorini/Alessandro Damiano (56.76)
4. Piccio Cusma/Matteo Gaddoni/Rodney Sanchez (54.4)
5. Jeff Kruger/Pipo Lopez/Reto Zimmerman
6. Fernando Botrugno/Luca Mazzucato/Mauro Mercuri
7. Alan Caplan/Oriel Hemed/Lusti Lustiger
Co-op Semi Pool B
1. Toddy Brodeur/Larry Imperiale/Paul Kenny (68.84)
2. Clay Collera/Tommy Leitner/Andrea Meola (62.66)
3. Mary Lowry/Cindy Kruger/Lisa Hunrichs Silvey (58.55)
4. Joakim Arveskar/Roland Karlsson/Stefan Karlsson (57.65)
5. Gregory Lo-A-Sjoe/Stefano Mestroni/Fabio Sanna (48.65)
6. Jan Soerensen/John Titcomb/Hila Yaniv (31.95)
Open Pairs Semi A
1. Arthur Coddington/Dave Lewis (71.1)
2. Larry Imperiale/Jeff Kruger (61.4)
3. Toddy Brodeur/Pipo Lopez (58.6)
4. Stefano Mestroni/Fabio Sanna (56.7)
5. Matteo Gaddoni/Rodney Sanchez (51.5)
6. Joakim Arveskar/Stefan Karlsson (46.8)
7. Paolo Mirabelli/Jan Soerensen (45.3)
8. Piccio Cusma/Andrea Meola (44.2)
Open Pairs Semi B
(top 4 advance to final)
1. Matt Gauthier/Randy Silvey (72.2)
2. Pat Marron/Tom Leitner (67.3)
3. Paul Kenny/Reto Zimmerman (62.1)
4. Clay Collera/Tommy Gereben (53.2)
5. Alessandro Damiano/Edoardo Favorini (50.1)
6. Lorenzo Apriani/Roland Karlsson (47.2)
7. Fernando Botrugno/Mauro Mercuri (40.7)
8. Luca Medri/John Titcomb (39.1)
Intermediate Semifinal
1. Paolo Magni (21.6)
2. Amit Peled (19.4)
3. Pietro Serra (19.1)
4T. Matteo Ceresa (17.5)
4T. Sara Cordero (17.5)
4T. Luca Viola (17.5)
7. Alice Belcredi (16.0)
8. Nicola DePaolie (14.5)
9. Manuel Cesari (14.4)
10. Gaia Audino (14.0)
11. Andrea Poli (11.1)
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Freestyle Players Association (FPA) - player profiles, tournament schedule
Freestyle Frisbee Page - freestyle news, results and tips
FreeSkyler.com - lots of freestyle videos for download
Frisbee Wizard - cool videos and slideshows
2003 Nike TV Ad
Heinsville - learn how to freestyle
Paganello - annual beach ultimate and freestyle event in Rimini, Italy (over 1,400 players)
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What's all the hype about freestyle? Check out these videos: 2003 FPA Worlds highlight video (28 MB) and last years Nike Television Ad (3.8 MB).