I just got off the phone with a jubilant group of athletes.  It was nice to hear from them, and their shouts of joy made it sound as if I were there.

A few of the team members played through injuries in this final game.  Co-captain Garett "Gee" Hickling was in the hospital this morning until 5am with our team medical staff.  He had received a vicious one-two hit from two of the American wrecking crew heavy hitters (Pate and and Kirkland) in the final two seconds of the first Canada–USA game and did a face plant into the floor, saving himself with his hands, but damaging one of his wrists in the process.  Hickling had just scored the game winning goal.

Mike "Head" Bacon (1.0), who got injured in the final game of the Canadian National Championships, and re-aggravated that same injury at the Worlds, played through that injury and a tendonitis problem.

Here are a few quotes from the World Champions:

(2.0) Co-captain David Willsie, London, ON: "We came here to do a job.  Mission accomplished!"

(0.5) Daniel Paradis, Québec, QC: "We invented this game, and now we've brought it home!"

(3.0) Mike "Quake" Whitehead, London, ON: "The bar has been set for us rookies.  Now we will have to live up to it!"

(3.0) Ian "Winks" Chan, Richmond, BC: Canada's #1, baby!"

(0.5) Dany Bélanger, Montréal, QC: "That was the most wonderful game I've ever seen in my life!"

(2.0) Allan Semeniuk, Saskatoon, SK: "Canada rocks the house!"

Team Manager, Marco Dispaltro, St-Jérôme, QC: "We came, we saw, we kicked US ass!"

We are so proud of them.  It's now time for them to enjoy themselves.  The last one of them has just left doping control, so they're on their way back to the hotel.

Final Results:

1.   CANADA (originally seeded 4th)
2.   United States (originally seeded 1st)
3.   Australia (originally seeded 2nd)
4.   Belgium (originally seeded 10th)
5.   Great Britain (originally seeded 6th)
6.   New Zealand (originally seeded 3rd)
7.   Sweden (originally seeded 5th)
8.   Japan (originally seeded 9th)
9.   Germany (originally seeded 7th)
10. The Netherlands (originally seeded 11th)
11. Switzerland (originally seeded 8th)
12. Austria (originally seeded 12th)