2017 World Footbag Championships, day 7 of my trip to Portland, Oregon. Competition day 5

Today was a very frustrating day for me. Some semi finals at this World Championships were played without even having a microphone for the head judge to say the scores. The players had to say the scores themselves and as as spectator I couldn't hear them half of the time. There was music coming from the (very) neighboorhood of the freestyle competitions, practices and even old man rants about their glorious nostalgic days. All this while some players who came as far as Finland, Poland, Slovenia and Germany were on the court. (Matti Pohjola, Wiktor Debski, Lena Mlakar and Kerstin Anhuth. What's this???? Very unprofessional. I hope that tomorrow the freestyle warm ups won't blast away the genuine finals being played on the courts, but, at this point, I'm not very optimistic.

So back to the events played on this 5th day of competition at the 2017 World Footbag Championships. 
The day started with 4 battles in the open singles division. Scheduled at 10 am. Walt Houston, Kenny Shults on one side of the bracket as well as Matti Pohjola and Tuomas Karki on the other made it to the semi finals.

The 2 semis followed each other. In the first duel Matti Pohjola played very well to defeat Tuomas. He anticipated and dug some incredibly well placed spikes. Well done Matti.
On the other side Walt Houston wanted to avenge his cousin and doubles partner. Ben Alston fell to Kenny Shults but Walt was not ready to shake. The holder of the title held it for at least one more round. The question now is: Can Matti control and return Walt's serve?

We'll see this Friday who's the new king.

The mixed doubles semi finals followed. My teammates Geneviève Bousquet and Luc Legault faced Evanne Lamarche and Kenny Shults in that all North American contest. The Aki Quebec representatives prevailed and are going to the grand finals on Saturday. Excellent! Go Montreal. 

Luc Legault et Geneviève Bousquet en finale au Championnat Mondial de Footbag 2017

The second semi finals featured an all European foursome. Lena Mlakar and Wiktor Debski won the long match that they played against Kerstin Anhuth helped by Matti Pohjola. 

Kerstin and Matti are multiple mixed title holders but Lena and Wiktor seemed even hungrier. This should be a good match. 

Wiktor Debski (Poland) and his partner Lena Mlakar (Slovenia)

More news tomorrow, the first finals start at noon.