The 2024 World Footbag Championships concluded yesterday

They pulled it off

When I showed up yesterday morning 15 minutes before the first scheduled match of the finals day, I was kind of baffled to find the Place Valois empty. The carpet wasn't there nor were the tents and umpire chair. Just as I was discussing this fact with singles net finalist Kenny Shults, a car showed up with two big rolls of carpet on top of it. From there on, the setup started and as doubtful as I was, it was completed in an hour and a half. The final setup was really nice and the first match of the day could finally start. I was worried about the timings, as the last games for the day were scheduled for 6:30 pm but, as we'll see later on in this article, everything went well. Well, I guess it was another example of footbag time 😁

Marilyn Demuy starting her splendid day in the women singles finals

Marilyn's day

I was chatting about the possibility of a Triple Crown for Maude Landreville or Marilyn Demuy in my previous blog post, consisting of wins in Women singles and doubles + mixed doubles. Well, the first match of the day would tell us everything about who would still get the chance to baffle the World with this rare accomplishment. As Marilyn took the singles title, Maude had to drop her expectations for the triple and focus on helping her partner (in Women's doubles) to achieve the dreamy conclusion. I'll come back to that in an instant as I want to keep the chronological order of the contest.

Walt Houston adds to his legend

The following match, the Open singles net final, opposed the title holder to the almost ghostly presence of footbag legend Ken Shults. Walt overpowered Kenny with hard serves and big spikes but Shults nonetheless offered a fierce opposition, taking a game of the champion, which is no small feat for a 57 year old man. Much honor to these two greats, that was entertaining. For Walt it meant a 7th World Championships title, en route to the Hall of Fame for sure.

Shults entered the match with a large hematoma to his support leg, footbag net is hard on the body.

Marilyn continues her journey towards the triple crown

There was a break for the net players for a while when some of the freestyle finals went on, I'll discuss that part in another article later.
The sun was still shining hard when Women's doubles started. Geneviève Bousquet and Lena Mlakar Jereb had the difficult task to try to stop the reigning champions, Maude and Marilyn, from grabbing yet another title.

They had their moments, especially at the beginning of the second game, but, overall, the champs were just too strong and consistent in their controlled game. A clear win in two games for the 2024 Women doubles champions. 

Maude, Marilyn, Lena and Geneviève

Yves, Marilyn, Maude and Luka in the Mixed doubles finals

One last step en route to footbag net glory

Marilyn had one more obstacle on her way to footbag net nirvana. Of course, she would have to face Maude once again, this time supported by German phenom Yves Kreil. Maude, on her side, was teamed up with fellow organizer Luka Weyler Lavallée. After a strong start from Maude and Luka, the match began to lean in favor of Marilyn and Yves all the way to the conclusion. Marilyn achieved the dream goal of any Footbag player with this title. I will definitely support her candidacy to the Hall of Fame of Footbag next year where she could rejoin the two other members of the Montreal women big three, Geneviève and Maude.

Finals day at the 2024 World Footbag Championships

Maude and Marilyn shoot for the triple crown

After 4 days of grueling efforts in the muggy weather that Montreal offered them, it's time for the last sprint to the finish line for the players still in the run. This morning, I want to attract your attention to a possible rare phenomenon that two of the best women in the sport of footbag could achieve: The footbag net triple crown. 

The triple crown consists in winning the singles, doubles and mixed titles, and it is very rarely achieved by any player, women or men.

This year, we have two contenders for this sweetest of the achievements that are possible for a net player. Indeed, Maude Landreville and Marilyn Demuy are still in the race for the ultimate achievement. Of course, for this to happen they have to be fighting each other in the women singles finals first, after which only one of them will remain with this possibility. This is scheduled for 11:00 as the first event of the day.

One of them will have to regroup for their next event, the Women doubles in which they will play together facing Lena Mlakar Jereb and Geneviève Bousquet. This should be a hell of a match, scheduled for 15:20. There will be no rest for our fierce warriors, 'cause although wrapped in love, they will face each other again in the mixed doubles contest. Marilyn will play with german phenom Yves Kreil and Maude will team up with Luka Weyler Lavallée, another Aki Quebec representative. These two teams were scheduled to meet at last year's Worlds in Colombia but, unfortunately, the spectators were deprived of an excellent confrontation due to Yves injury. This should be exciting, especially if our two contestants are still alive for the Triple dose of glory.

Kenny Shults' fairy tale is not over in the 2024 World Footbag Championships

21 years ago, Kenny Shults participated in his last singles net finals. That was at the 2004 Worlds, held in Montreal. What an inspiring story to see this master coming back to the game and getting to the finals again. Shults beat François Depatie-Pelletier in 5 sets to advance, I'm tempted to say, against all odds. 

Will his unique style and mastery be enough to dethrone Walt Houston, who's been the dominant singles player in recent years as well as the reigning World Champion. Walt cleaned up the competition last year in Medellin, Colombia. If you wish to see these results, click on this link.
On his side of the bracket, Walt took care of the 4th semi-finalist, Guillaume Degat currently residing at l'Ile de la Réunion, pretty much at the other end of the World.
Kenny Shults will be in action today in the Open Doubles event with his last minute partner Bob Lavigne.

Kenny Shults and François Depatie-Pelletier before the start of the match

The Women singles finals, all Montreal, all the way

In the Women singles, Marilyn Demuy and Maude Landreville asserted their domination with utter strength. This will be a repeat from their contest at the most recent Akisphere, where Marilyn

2024 World Footbag Championships update

 Hello fellow footbag enthusiasts!

The 2024 World Footbag Championships saw their 3rd day action cancelled today due to adverse weather, namely lots of rain. 

I've been watching some of the Footbag net (Kick Volley) competition on Monday and Tuesday and, already, saw some very good matches. I'll be attending the 3 remaining days non stop and filming lots. 

Links

Just a few links to start you up if you don't know where to go for the best info:
The official website, in french and english is at: https://akiquebec.org
The Facebook page of the event can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555965686460
The net competitions results are displayed on the tournament software at:
https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draws.aspx?id=BD8C8961-10FF-4442-8BD7-B8688E1203F1

First Impressions and pictures

It is the fifth time that the World Footbag Championships land in Montreal after the 1996, 1998, 2004 and 2013 editions. The current one is produced with minimal means but the spirit is intact. It's so much fun to see the enthusiasm of the players on and off the courts, makes me a little bit emotional to see all my old and newer friends flock to our beloved city for the annual footbag pilgrimage.

Our local club, Aki Québec, is doing very well with established top players as well as new sensations. 

Portland, Oregon is back at it

So far, one of the best stories I've heard originates from the cradle of the sport. Indeed, the great Kenny Shults, my first mentor and nemesis, started practicing again at the demand of his son Jasper, who wanted to do well in the tournament.

2017 World Footbag Championships, one year later the videos

I worked part time all year on the video footage that I and my friend Cory filmed in Portland last year. Finally I am proud to announce that I released two video on demand albums on that particular tournament.

Here they are: 
2017 World Footbag Championships - All the Net Finals Collection from Pro Kicker
There is a page with discounted prices for both albums click here to see it

The second album is on the Freestyle Finals Night:
The 2017 World Footbag Championships - Freestyle - The Finals Night from Pro Kicker

Hope that you'll enjoy these 2 albums as much as I had fun to create them!!!

2017 World Footbag Championships, day 9 of my trip to Portland, Oregon. Competition day 7

There was some magic in the air at the Portland convention center yesterday. Everything finally fell into place and the feeling was fantastic. It will be a very important thing to reflect about having freestyle and net in the same room as disruptions from one another were constant.

To the competition now; The first match of the day was for the Open doubles bronze medals. Luc Legault and Wiktor Debski took the first game of Team Finland by a score of 15-9 as they did in the semi finals against Ben Alston and Walt Houston. But as they did the day before their intention collapsed rapidly as the Finns were playing better and better. Matti Pohjola and Tuomas Karki took the second and third games 15-5, 15-6 to add yet another podium to their brilliant footbag lifetime achievements.

This match was followed by the Women's doubles finals opposing team Europe Lena Mlakar and Kertsin Anhuth to team North America  Geneviève Bousquet and Julie Symons. As in the previous match the momentum changed quite a few times in that bout. Team Europe took the first game 15-6 but the north americans came back in games 2 and 3 and won them 15-8 15-11 For Geneviève, who later that night got inducted in the Footbag Hall of Fame, it was a 6th doubles title and for Julie a whopping 12th in career. Julie jumped in at the last minute to replace Maude Landreville who had to have ear surgery just before Worlds and for this she couldn't fly. Symons didn't practice much in the last year and she was just planning to play masters double but she got her game back just in time and set Geneviève beautifully. Well done team North America!

In the mixed doubles finals my teammates Luc Legault and Geneviève Bousquet were making it to the finals for the 3rd time. As per what happened previously they failed to bring the title home and pretty much took a beating from Lena Mlakar and Wiktor Debski. This was the first net medal in the history of team Poland (Debski) and the first Mixed title for Slovenia (Mlakar)

The next match is the most prestigious title in the Footbag Net World Open doubles. The favorites Benjamin Alston and Walt Houston were facing the second seeded team of François Depatie-Pelletier and Manu Bouchard. As expected Ben and Walt dominated, thanks to their big serves that François and Manu had the most difficult time to set properly and even completely missed at times. So a first doubles title at the World Footbag Championships for the Memphis team. Congrats, well played.

This concludes my blog post for today, I'll post a recap soon, stay tuned!

2017 World Footbag Championships, day 8 of my trip to Portland, Oregon. Competition day 6

Howdy folks, how are you doing this morning? The 2017 Worlds is coming to an end very soon. Day 6 had a lot of important events but before I get in the details of the competition there's a few things that I need to say. First of all I think that the net part of the tournament lacks direction. I had to insist yesterday morning that we had a microphone on the main court. Without a push the players would have had to say their scores themselves again. Luckily this problem was solved halfway through the women singles finals and at least the net judge said the scores for the competitors. 

Later during the day, while open doubles semis were in full swing the music started on the freestyle side again, even if their finals were scheduled for 6:30 pm only. As well the free flow people were blasting their music in the main room with no consideration whatsoever for the competitors battling for the World title. One of the players, after repeatedly asking the freestyle producer to turn the music down. had to unplug the speakers and bring the volume to almost zero on the free flow circles blaster. The players on the court flew from Memphis, TN, Montreal, Qc and Poland. Please a little respect.

Women singles net finals

Back to the actual battles that took place on the main court, 2 net titles were in the balance at the beginning of the day. First was the women's singles title. Lena Mlakar (Slovenia) fought Kerstin Anhuth (Germany). Lena was superior, defensively and offensively and she took the title without took much trouble. She took the match in four sets 15-613-1515-1115-9

Open singles net finals

On the men's side the 2016 title holder Walt Houston (USA) was trying to retain his title against Matti Pohjola (Finland). After Matti defeated his teammate Tuomas Karki in the semis I was afraid that he would have problems receiving Walt's service. Tuomas has to deal with quite a bit of Walt's serve in recent years and was doing pretty darn well in receiving in properly. Matti was not ready to deal with the best service on the footbag net tour. This resulted in an easy win for Walt (15-6 15-11 15-10) who racks up a third world title in four years.

The 2017 Footbag Net world singles champions: Lena Mlakar (Slovenia) and Walt Houston (USA)

Open doubles semi finals

The double semis are big crowd favorites as there is a lot of action, big spikes, digs and big running saves. These two matches brought the goods to the spectators in a big way.

In the first match François Depatie-Pelletier and Manu Bouchard (Aki Québec) faced Matti Pohjola and Tuomas Karki (Team Finland). These four are seasoned veterans with lots of experience in the key moments of a tournament. Depatie-Pelletier and Bouchard were in control during the whole match, the Finns players seemed to be lacking energy a little bit and were making more unforced errors than usual and they were pretty much crushed 15-7 15-6

On the other side of the bracket it was a completely different story. Benjamin Alston and Walt Houston (USA) had their hands full with the team of Luc Legault (Aki Québec) and Wiktor Debski (Team Poland). Luc and Wiktor quickly demonstrated that they would not fold against the number one team. They rolled away with a 15-10 victory in the first set and a battle was set to unfold. Ben and Walt won the second set easily 15-4 as it seemed that Legault and Debski lost their concentration and agressiveness for a while. The third set was a battle and I'm sure that the Americans felt the pressure. In the end the combination of them having the best serves and the Polish-Quebec team's relatively weak offerings made the difference. Walt and Ben won the third game 15-10 to make it to the finals at the World Footbag Championships for the first time. The match was nonetheless breathtaking, bravo to all the players.

Luc Legault and Wiktor Debski will battle for third place in open doubles 

Walt Houston and Ben Alston will play in their first ever open doubles finals at the 2017 World Footbag Championships

Freestyle final night

There was a lot of action on the Footbag Freestyle scene as well on day 6. The program invited us to watch the women's and open singles routines + the open circle finals.

The women's field was small this year with only four competitors. Paloma Mayo, the winner of the 2015 title in Copenhagen was clearly the favorite and she dominated the group with her uniquely entertaining style and beautifully crafted routine. Cass Taylor and Caroline Birch pretty much dropped all over the place so they were no match for the champion. Congrats Paloma.

In the open routines eight competitors were battling for the title. Surprisingly Pawel Nowak from Poland took the title over the legend, Vasek Klouda. He's probably still floating on a cloud this morning. It is a well deserved win as he executed his pretty difficult routine flawlessly and without a drop. Vasek had to face a technical glitch at the beginning of his routine as the organizers started the wrong tune for his performance. I can't wait for the day that this won't happen once in the freestyle finals, it seems to be an annoyingly resurging problem. How can it be so difficult to start the right music for the players???? This might have took some of Vasek's legendary concentration away as he dropped the bag once during his routine, probably costing him the title as the scores were extremely tight. Taishi Ishida stepped on the third stair of the podium with another dropless routine, very nice work Taishi. I also like TJ Boutorwick's routine, another dropless routine,  if I'm not mistaken, to start the contest. Jim Penske's was also worth noting. The level is so hight these days that any of the 8 finalists has to push the limits very far.

Speaking about pushing the limits what about the circle competition? This is a great display of virtuosity. The four players in the circle's finals are all virtuosos in my opinion although Nick Landes seemed a bit weaker than the 3 others. Vasek Klouda won it but I was extemely impressed by Lon Smith's crazy abilities + he seemed to be having the most fun. Lon second, Jim Penske 3rd and Nick Landes 4th. Fun to watch and probably discouraging to freestyle beginners? These guys are red hot and in full mastery of their craft. 

So now freestyle is over and there's one day left in the net competitions including the three doubles titles: women's, open and mixed. Lena Mlakar is in the women's doubles and the mixed finals and as she already caught the women singles title she could be looking at a tripe crown, a rare event in the footbag net world.

Three of my Montreal teammates are still in the contention for titles:

Geneviève Bousquet in the women's doubles and mixed

François Depatie-Pelletier and Manu Bouchard in the open doubles.

Let's hope that they bring back some gold to our beloved hometown!