19th Intercrosse World Games – Ratingen (D) – July 24-29 2007

> EVENTS > 19th Intercrosse World Games - Ratingen (D) - July 24-29 2007

The 19th edition of the Intercrosse World Games took place in Ratingen outside Düsseldorf in Germany July 24-29 2008.

You can find pictures from this event on the following page;
World Games 2007 Gallery

The Teams

A total of 62 players attended the games and were divided into six teams each named after the team sponsor.

Click the team name to see the team picture and the names of the players.

• Blue Pressure (Light blue)
• Creative Blues (Dark Blue)
• Concrete White (White)
• Red Electrics (Red)
• Green Lifters (Black/Green)
• Grey Power (Light Grey)

The Opening Ceremony

As usual, the tournament started with the opening ceremony and the drawing of teams.
This year, each team was sponsored by a company and the team names were therefore given based on the different sponsors.

The ceremony started with a welcome by the organisers, the deputy mayor of Ratingen and the Floriana Cotnoir Ranno on behalf of the FIIC.

Next, the drawing of teams commenced starting with the goalkeepers followed by the women and finally the men.

The games

The game schedule started with a preliminary round of round-robin matches was played.
A win counted for 3 points a draw 1 point and a loss 0 points.

The teams in 1st and 2nd place were directly qualified for a semi-final whereas the teams in 3rd to 6th position played an extra “quarter final” game for a place in the semi-final.

The final day started with the game for 5th place followed by the game for 3rd and finally the tournament final.

You can find the results here.

Socialising

As customary at the World Games the evening were dedicated to socialising among the participants.

Tuesday evening hosted the opning ceremony where new and old friends met. All enthusiastic about the upcoming event. It didn’t take long before the dice were rolling, if you know what I mean :-)…

Wednesday evening was dedicated to the FIIC annual meeting for those “lucky ones” who got to go there. The rest of the crowd scattered, some going downtown and some just enjoying themselves at the hotel or the camp site.

Thursday evening started off with a guided tour in Ratingen followed dinner and a night out in Düsseldorf Altstadt. Somehow, the whole group ended up in a pub with a DJ (imagine that).
Let’s just say that the intercrosse delegation rocked the place…

Friday evening featured a caribbean night with karaoke and the final saturday evening was barbeque night followed by the closing ceremony.

Closing ceremony

The closing ceremony started off with the tournament “mascot” and penguin extraordinaire
Gustav Eriksson showing off his moves on the dancefloor, to everyone’s delight.
It’s amazing how a soon-to-be two-year-old can capture an audience.

Next, the “official” part took over starting with the tribute of the teams in descending order.
Each participant received a medal and a small gift from the sponsors.

Then, finally, it was time for the long-awaited penguin award ceremony.
The three senior penguins Mikael, Therése and Tobias entered the stage and did not even have to say the name of the first winner – it was enough to say that he got the “Clumsy Penguin Of The Year” award for accidently (?) openening the back door of a police mini-bus (!) during the visit in Düsseldorf. There was no doubt that Urban Müller was indeed worthy of the price.

The second award was a special award called the “Kaiser Preis”.
It was given – not surprisingly – to Lars Kaiser for his hard work in ensuring that these World Games took place.

Next award out was the “Leffe’s Choice” award, traditionally given to the “party animal” of the games. This year’s worthy winner was Olivier Cloutier-Charbonneau from Québec.
Not only did he get the diploma, but also a cooling-bag to keep his beer in… 😉

The tension in the room was now getting bigger as the next award winner was announced.
This year’s “Rookie Penguin Of The Year” was awarded Geoffroy Dubreuil, Québec.

Finally, it was time for the grand award. This year’s winner was one of the easiest to find in the history of the penguin awards. She received several nominations from different participants over the week, for her neverending energy both on and off the court.
Although it was clear to everyone else it came as a surprise to the winner herself; Tereza Koubová from Czech Republic. She is now only the second woman and the first Czech player to win the price.

Then, the ceremonies were over…almost…

A couple of hours later, the penguin jury had another ace up their sleeves.
As many of the participants had relaxed thinking there were no more awards, the jury took the stage again to announce another award winner.

Obviously the jury received new nominations during the evening which made it possible to announce a successor to the “Naughty Penguin Of The Year”. The funny thing was that during the games the only persons presenting nominations for this award was previous naughty award winners :-). To his own surprise the award was now given to Thomas Weber from Germany from the hands of Mario St-Amand from Québec who won the award in Malmö in 2005.

The party then continued long into the night…