My 30th World Footbag Championships travel diary - day 10

First day of the grand Finals

Finally we're getting in the main showtime of this World Championships. The first finals of the showcase featured the women singles opponents. In a no show match Piia Tantarimaki defeated Geneviève Bousquet easily. The scores in the 2 first games were tight but Piia dominated the whole time and led the score at every moment. Geneviève had better days, she looked paralyzed by nervousness and fear of loosing. I'm sure she can do better in the future, sometimes taking a beating can be the motivation one needs to continue to improve. Congratulations to Piia for a second title in a row after Copenhagen.

Piia Tantarimaki just after winning Women singles at the 2016 WFC - Photo by Pro Kicker

Open doubles Semi Finals

The much awaited doubles semi finals started with a transcontinental confrontation. Florian Gotze and Arthur Ledain took care of Walt Houston and Ben Alston in the first match not without providing Pro Kicker Production with very nice footage. Ben felt the pressure more than the others, at least in the beginning of the match, and he seemed to be bothered by the gym lights. Florian was imperial, as he is most of the time, and Artur hit some very spectacular shots. Walt and Ben had a few of the own but in the end the better team prevailed.

In the second match the French team of Grischa Tellenbach and Sébastien Maillet offered a very valuable resistance to Finland's #1 team. Matti Pohjola and Janne Uusitalo played a flawless match, cutting the unforced errors to a minimum as per their usual standards. The Finns are returning to the finals for the third time (2011,2015, 2016) let's see if this will be the good one for them. The odds are not in their favor but it's played on the court.

Florian Gotze, to the right wearing the winners smile as gracefully as always - Photo by Pro Kicker

Shred 30 and Circle contest - Freestyle

The day progressed to two freestyle events, shred 30 and circle. I'm no specialist but it seemed that the level of circle was lower than last year's in Copenhagen. The absence of great players such as Vasek Klouda, Milan Benda and Jim Penske was not fully compensated by newer faces but the contests was still interesting. Congratulations to the winners, especially to Evan Gatesman who repeated his presence in the Circle finals, this time with the win.

Open singles Finals

Wow! This was high level footbag net! Walt Houston (Memphis Footworks) the 2014 World Champion met with Tuomas Karki (Team Finland) the 2010 and 2011 World Champ and 2013 and 2015 finalist. These guys talk business and they offered a great show. Big sets, big spikes, big saves and a great science of the court, that's what we were lucky enough to witness live.

Walt Houston took the crown as he finally overpowered his worthy opponent in the fourth set. Pro Kicker Production will be offering this match as well as all the other finals in a virtual DVD around the end of August - beginning of September.

Walt Houston 2016  Open singles World Champion - Photo by Pro Kicker

So there is one more day to go, tomorrow we will have the Women's doubles, Mixed doubles and the much awaited Open doubles finals - Stay tuned