WFDF WU24 2019 Spotlight: Day 2 Highlights

 This article was written by Becky Thompson who is here in Heidelberg, Germany to commentate the WFDF World U24 Ultimate Championships. She's has recently left her position as Ultimate Canada's Communications Manager to live, study and play ultimate in the UK.

Monday in Heidelberg got off to a slow start as play was delayed by over an hour and half due to there being no medics at the field sites. In the interest of player safety, all games were delayed until a medical team had arrived at the venue.

This meant players who arrived early and began to warm up for their 9am games, had to wait until 10:40am to finally get started. Teams did their best to stay fresh and continued to throw throughout the delay, but there was a definite feel of frustration from players and organizers over the situation.

Luckily, this had no effect on our broadcasted games as we were able to stream everything we had originally planned. Eventually, the game times caught up a bit and the remainder of the day started only an hour after their original timeslot was scheduled for, and the day was still filled with incredible moments.

Dance Like Colombia

While the game delay took place, team Colombia women took the moment to enjoy being with their teammates and to show off their dancing to German national TV. The television crew showed up to cover the event and to take in the atmosphere of the tournament. I don’t think they could have picked a better moment to embrace than the Colombian’s getting into formation, first for a team dance and then breaking off into a hilarious free style that brought smiles to all the faces of those looking on.

France Mixed Magic

The French mixed team came out today having lost a tough came to the Netherlands in the opening game on Sunday. Despite a hard start, France rebounded quickly as they took down Great Britain before facing off against team USA. The pool play match up was a dominant win for the Americans, but I enjoyed watching the sparks of brilliance from the French so much. Apart from the USA, they are one of the most well-rounded teams I have seen in the mixed division so far. They use every player on the pitch so efficiently, consistently relying on their women to generate their offense and coming down with big athletic plays when they had to. In the second half, they broke the USA’s offensive line twice, which you could see made the entire team so proud of what they had accomplished despite the overall result being a 15-7 loss. There is no doubt in my mind that the future of French ultimate is looking extremely bright.

FRA vs GBR

Feeling Like a Fan

It’s not often when I’m working as a commentator that I get a few games off in a row. With the first two days only being live on one pitch (before we move to two tomorrow), I was able to take a moment to sit and relax while I watched the Canadian women take on Great Britain. It was exciting to watch so many players that I have played with and interacted with over the years compete for Canada, as well as three of my teammates from my current club team SYC who play for GB. I truly appreciated the moment, and it was great to watch Canada run away with the win as well.

Japanese Respect

The Japanese women had a broadcasted game against Italy today, which they won with ease. My favourite moment was after the game, the entire Japanese team formed a line in front of the few fans who had come to watch their game. They gave the crowd a bow, in unison, and thanked them for watching. Japan then turned to walk to towards where the volunteers would be to thank them as well. On their way there, they ran into myself and Tom Styles (who had not even been commentating their game). When they found out we were a part of the commentary team, they gave us a bow and a thank you as well. It was such a simple, small moment, but one that made me feel so respected and a little special.

Can Anyone Beat USA Mixed?

This is more of a hot take than one of my highlights of the day. The USA mixed team took to the field for their second game of the tournament—having had to wait from their first game at 9am on Sunday all the way until 6pm Monday to play another match. Even with the long wait, they appeared loose yet looked so sharp. The French team were able to put a little bit of pressure on the in the second half, but under that pressure the American’s thrived even more. Their roster is so deep and so unbelievably fast. I don’t think there is any way that they don’t walk away with a gold medal around their necks at the end of this week. That being said, I would love to be proved wrong.