Sources of the RRJ just came back with some details on that surprising and protested first day game between the Swedes and the Danes.  It was the first game for each team, at the first time slot of the day, and was between the 2nd and 5th seeded teams in the pool.

The protest was made by Denmark concerning the referee's judgement about Sweden's final goal in the game.  The result of the protest was a 12-second turning back of the clock, to be played the next day, and the ball was given to Denmark.  The decision to give the ball to the Danes was apparantly incorrect given the direction of the arrow.

Denmark maintained control of the ball for eight seconds, and then scored with four seconds left on the clock.  The Swedes were unable to score in the remaining four seconds, and that was it.  After that loss, and with Belgium still to come, the Swedes had to hope that the Danes lost a few of their remaining games which might still allow them to place second in their pool if they did well in their other games.  Although the Swedes won all their other pool games, the Danes didn't cooperate, as they beat the Swiss by 1, the Finns by 6, and the Norwegians by a lot, so the Swedes will have to buy tickets to Athens to watch rugby this time around.

Hats off to the Danes, but we'll miss the Swedes.  They're a classy team.

I was able to find out a bit more info regarding Jon Lilley's re-classification. Although he was protested in advance of the championships, he was able to play his first two pool games before being forced to sit out all remaining games during a series of protests.  The Brits did get some good news from the panel, in the form of a downgrade in the classification of Justin Frishberg, who was dropped down from 2.5 to 2.0.  Despite having their offensive star watch from the sidelines, the Brits swept their pool, and all their remaining games to go 7-0 at the tournament and become the #1 European team in the sport.  The Swedes saw four of their players re-classified – two down and two up.  Christer Jansson went from a 2.5 to a 3.0, Kristofer Lindberg got upgraded from a 2.0 to a 2.5, while 3.0's Hans Topgaard and Mikael Widlund both dropped down to become 2.5's.

2003 Vancouver Invitational Wheelchair Rugby Tournament

Tournament All-Star Team:

0.5 – Jason Regier, California Quake
1.0 – Mike Bacon, Sasksquash
1.5 – Patrice Simard, Canada East
2.0 – David Willsie, Canada East
2.5 – Justin Patterson, California Quake
3.0 – Ian Chan, San Diego Bushwhackers
3.5 – Garett Hickling, California Quake
MVP – Garett Hickling, California Quake

The score in the final game was 35-34 for the Quake.

Final Standings:

1st – CALIFORNIA QUAKE (5-0)
2nd – Canada East (4-1)
3rd – San Diego Bushwhackers (3-2)
4th – Portland Pounders (2-3)
5th – Sasksquash (3-2)
6th – British Columbia Bandits (2-3)
7th – Seattle AllNight (1-4)
8th – Alberta Steel Wheels (0-5)

*** Newsflash: ***

There are unconfirmed reports that Jon Lilley, the offensive star of the British team, got classed out of the sport at the European Championships, and is now considered to be a "4".

Now that I have your attention, the final results of the 2003 Vancouver Invitational should soon be known, and the final results from the 2003 European Championships, which should solidify the four European teams for the 2004 Paralympics, are now available on John Bishop's USQRA site.

FINAL STANDINGS:

1. GREAT BRITAIN
2. BELGIUM
3. GERMANY
4. DENMARK

---

5. Sweden
6. The Netherlands
7. Switzerland
8. Austria
9. Poland
10. Finland
11. Ireland
12. Norway

The Brits beat the Belgians by a single point in the gold medal game.

In similar fashion, in the final game of the Vancouver Invitational, Garett Hickling's 5-member California Quake team beat Canada East in the gold medal game by a single point, which must put them in a confident mood going into the USQRA Division 1 Finals, where they are seeded lower than anticipated.

I was hoping that the first few games of the European Championships would have been posted by now, but there is no news from Belgium.

Results from the pools, and the original seedings within the pools were:

Pool "A"

(1) Belgium 5-0
(2) Sweden 3-2
(3) Switzerland 2-3
(4) Finland 1-4
(5) Denmark 4-1
(6) Norway 0-5

Pool "B"

(1) Great Britain 5-0
(2) Germany 4-1
(3) The Netherlands 3-2
(4) Austria 2-3
(5) Poland 1-4
(6) Ireland 0-5

Teams which won their crossover games included GBR, BEL, SWE, NED, FIN, and POL.  The Poles won the pre-world championships tournament last year, which was held for countries which had not qualified for Worlds.

That's all for me for a little while, as I am doing a sport demo at the local Sugarbush Festival from 11:00 - 17:00 today.  Mmmmm... maple syrup, eh!  It's nice to have a cabin-à-sucre only 500 metres from where you live.  Maple syrup should be served on tap.

All results from today's games have now been posted.  The seeds held, which sets up the final four games as follows:

7th: Alberta Steel Wheels vs. Seattle AllNight
5th: Saskatchewan Sasksquash vs. British Columbia Bandits
3rd: San Diego Bushwhackers vs. Portland Pounders
1st: California Quake vs. Canada East

The first three games from each gym at the Vancouver Invitational are now posted.  It seems that the Sasksquash weren't the only to be missing players, as the California Quake 2.0 player forgot to bring proof of citizenship with him when crossing the border and was turned around at Canada customs.  The Quake are now down to a Belgian-like bench of five players.  The Bushies are down to six players, as they are without the services of their registered 2.5 athlete, Albert Moscona, who was named to the All-tournament team at the 2001 edition of the Vancouver Invitational.

The medal round crossovers see the Pacific coast rivals, along with their BC boys, square off in BC to see which of them will make it to the final against the winner of Canada East & the Portland Pounders.

The Sasksquash will have to beat Seattle to get into the 5th place game tomorrow, while neighbouring provinces Alberta and British Columbia face off for the other spot.  Those teams unsuccessful in these games will meet for 7th place at 9:30 tomorrow morning.  The Saskatchewan Sasksquash feature the return of longtime member Rick Reelie, who was on five National Championship teams with teammates Al Semeniuk, Daryl Stubel, and Mike Bacon from 1987-1991.  Rick is a longtime Canadian national team member in athletics and a 3-time Paralympian.

While I listen to a few of the new CDs I picked up at a concert last night by The Waifs, who are the Aussie's best export since «The Kid», I thought I'd check out the stats from the European Championships, which are running concurrently to our own international tourney just outside Vancouver.

The Waifs, an indy band from Australia, are currently on a North American tour, with stops at a number of rugby cities, including Ottawa, ON (Zaphod Beeblebrox), Winnipeg, MB (Winnipeg Folk Festival), Birmingham, AL (City Stages), and Tampa, FL (Cuban Club).  They will be touring with Bob Dylan, doing over a dozen shows together.  Their enthusiasm is infectious, and their music becomes almost immediately familiar, which is all too rare.  They are highly recommended, and I'm exceedingly hard to please, so that's saying something.

The European Zone, which has the greatest number of active rugby playing countries within it's borders, has almost wrapped up their championship, and The Danes are looking like the story of the tournament.

So far, they beat the Swedes, one of the traditional powers in European wheelchair rugby, in a protested game 27-26, and scored victories over Switzerland, Finland, and Norway, and came within 3 points of top-seeded Belgium, who finished 4th at the 2002 World Championships.  Those wins were enough to place them 2nd in their pool and setup a crossover match against the powerful Brits, who spanked them back to reality by an overwhelming score.

The other pool had no major upsets to the seeds, so this is what it looks like for Sunday's final games:

11th: Ireland vs. The Norwegians
9th: Poland vs. The Finns
7th: Austria vs. The Swiss
5th: Sweden vs. The Netherlands
3rd: Germany vs. The Danes
1st: Belgium vs. The Brits

Welcome to Day 1 of the Vancouver Invitational, which is a great warmup to postseason play for both the four US teams in attendance, as well as for a similar number of teams from the north of the 49th parallel, a dividing line between countries which are very close in many ways.

Teams involved at this year's international tournament include the two Pacific Section teams which qualified for the USQRA Division 1 Nationals, the California Quake, featuring «The Warrior», and the San Diego Bushwhackers, with their Pacific Sectionals MVP, «Winks».  The 3rd ranked team from the section, the Portland Pounders, is also participating, along with a team from Seattle.  The Pounders are among the favorites to win the Division 2 title at the upcoming US National Championships, which are to be held in Phoenix, Arizona.  Canadian entries at the Vancouver Invitational are from BC, AB, SK, along with an eastern allstar team, featuring members of the Canadian National Team and the National Squad.

There were a few noticeable changes in the lineups, as Martin Mainguy was seconded to the Alberta Steel Wheels since Alberta needed another 0.5, and Canada East had three on the roster.  The Alberta team also got one of their teammates back, Allan Chartrand, who had been training in South Florida for the past little while, and got him back classed down to a 2.0 from a 2.5.  Meanwhile, noticeably absent from the Sasksquash was national team member Daryl Stubel (2.0), who had some serious work comittments on the first day of the tournament, but who will be able to play all the remaining games for the Saskatchewan provincial team.

Newcomers to the National Squad, Manitoba deuces Ian Crowe and Trevor Robinson, both played well on the Canada East lineup, with Robinson using Fabien Lavoie's backup chair, as his new chair is still not quite ready.

More info will follow tomorrow... er, later today, since it already is tomorrow.

US National team coach Kevin Orr often likes to end his posts on the USQRA Rugby Forum with "Expect the unexpected," which is good little credo, although last night it wouldn't have been too appropriate.  Last night, as expected, the Canadian men's and women's olympic hockey teams steamrolled through the opposition to capture both "Team of the Year" awards at the 30th annual Canadian Sport Awards.  The Olympic win by the men ended a 50-year golden drought in Canada's winter national sport.  The women overcame an 8-straight set of losses to the dominant US Olympic team, before getting the job done when it counted.

Full results from the gala, which is Canada's most prestigious set of awards for *ahem* amateur sports are available on the Globe and Mail's web site. 

The world champion Canadian men's wheelchair rugby team was represented by co-captain Dave Willsie, his wife Dodie McCoy, and CWSA Executive Director, Cathy Cadieux.

Complete information on the 2003 Canadian Wheelchair Rugby National Championships has now been released on the CWSA web page.  See you in Winnipeg!

The final results are now in, and Canadian national team co-captain Dave Willsie and his Sarasota team, the Hoveround Lightning, have held their #1 seed throughout the tournament, and are eager to to prove to the league that they are stronger than their #5 current ranking in the USQRA.  Our own Mike "Shake 'n Quake" Whitehead of the Maine team was named tournament MVP.  Congrats guys!

The rejuvanated Casco Bay Navigators, who have been trying hard all season to prove themselves on the national scene, improved on their pool game against the Lightning, but still were unable to come closer than a dozen points to the powerful host team.  The final score was 40-28 for the Lightning.

The final results of the tournament are:

1st - Hoveround Lightning (1) (#1 – #2 qualify for Division 1 USQRA Nationals)
2nd - Casco Bay Navigators (4)

International players dominated the All Tournament Team, which looks like this:

2003 Atlantic Sectional Playoffs — All Tournament Team

0.5 – Charles Ray, South Florida Rattlers & Joel Post, Hoveround Lightning
1.0 – George Taborsky, EPVA New York Jets & Chad Foster, CIR Carolina Crash
1.5 – Patrice Simard, South Florida Rattlers
2.0 – Dave Willsie, Hoveround Lightning
2.5 – Peter Martin, Carolina Crash
3.0 – Fabian Lavoie, Magee Rolling Rebels
3.5 – Scott Burrows, Tampa Generals
MVP – Mike Whitehead, Casco Bay Navigators
Sportsmanship – John Szintai, Casco Bay Navigators

Dave Willsie, his wife Dodie McCoy, and CWSA Executive Director Cathy Cadieux will be representing the World Champion Canadian Wheelchair Rugby Team in another two weeks at the 30th Annual Canadian Sport Awards, where our team is a finalist for the Canadian Male Team of the Year.  This time, we'll have to beat Wayne Gretzky's Canadian Olympic Men's Hockey Team, which won gold at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics for the first time in 50 years in Canada's official winter national sport.  *gulp* !

News is "in" from Sarasota and the Atlantic Sectionals, and it's not good for the 3-time US National Champions from Tampa.

The first game of the final day of competition saw the Atlanta-based 'Shepherd Smash' beat the EPVA New York Jets by a comfortable 13-point margin, 35-22.  Both teams maintained their seeding.  Meanwhile, teams from Florida and Philadelphia, led by their travelling Canucks, came up against each other to decide what is likely the best team which won't make it to the USQRA Nationals.  The South Florida Rattlers came up on top, beating the Philadelphia based Magee Rolling Rebels by a four-point margin, 33-29.

The Carolina Crash and the 3-time former US National Champions from Tampa met on Saturday morning, with the higher seeded Tampa Generals going down by two.  The game this morning had a similar outcome, although the margin was shaved to a single point.  Tampa will have another chance against the Crash at the Division 2 Nationals in Phoenix.  It hasn't been a banner year for the Generals, who didn't win a game at their home tournament this year, the Coloplast International.

3rd - CIR Carolina Crash (4) (#3 – #4 qualify for Division 2 USQRA Nationals)
4th - Tampa Generals (2)

5th - South Florida Rattlers (5) (#5 – #8 eliminated)
6th - Magee Rolling Rebels (6)
7th - Shepherd Smash (7)
8th - EPVA New York Jets (8)

A number of teams have made some improvements since the 2002 season, the results of which appear below:

2002 Atlantic Sectional Playoffs
Final Standings

1 - Suncoast Lightning (renamed the Hoveround Lightning this year)
2 - Tampa Generals (slipped to 4th)
3 - Boston Pitbulls (did not compete due to injuries... back next year)
4 - CIR Charlotte Crash (better by one)
5 - Casco Bay Navigators (improvement of 3-4 spots this year)
6 - Magee Rolling Rebels (same result)
7 - South Florida Rattlers (improvement of 2 spots in 2003)
8 - Connecticut Jammers (eliminated in Northeast Regional in 2003)

The battle for first place in the 2003 Sectionals is on as I compose this journal entry.

Eastern members of the Canadian National Team program are currently with their USQRA teams at the Atlantic Sectional in Sarasota, Florida. This tournament will decide which four teams will compete on behalf of the Atlantic zone at the USQRA Nationals, which are to be held next month in Phoenix, Arizona.  They held an Atlantic North regional competition prior to the Sectional, at which 3.0 Mike Whitehead and 2.5 John Szintai from the London Annihilators helped their team from Maine take 1st place honours.

The teams involved in the Atlantic Sectional, and their seedings were:

Pool A
1 - Hoveround Lightning (Featuring 2.0 David Willsie)
3 - Casco Bay Navigators (Featuring 3.0 Whitehead and 2.5 Szintai)
6 - Magee Rolling Rebels (Featuring 3.0 Fabien Lavoie)
8 - EPVA New York Jets

Pool B
2 - Tampa Generals
4 - CIR Carolina Crash (Featuring both Aussie and Kiwi national team members)
5 - South Florida Rattlers (Featuring 1.5 Patrice Simard & 3.5(US) Steven Dunn, and coached by Marco Dispaltro)
7 - Atlanta Shepherd Smash

The South Florida Rattlers, who have been playing with a varied lineup all year, which included other Canadians, and even a member of the 2002 Swedish national team, had a must-win game to start off the competion, as only the top-2 teams from each pool would have a chance to move on to the Nationals.  Their first opponent was the #4 ranked team from Carolina, and although making a great game out of it, the Rattlers fell by two points to the Crash, losing 29-31 in a heartbreaker.  The Crash went on to beat the #1 team in their pool, the Tampa Generals, by the same 2-goal margin.

Over the past couple of days, there has been a certain amount of whining in the USQRA Rugby Talk Forum by an anonymous member of the Crash who appears to have flunked out of Charm School.  It seems he didn't much care for the seeding, but it appears that the Commish has been vindicated, as Maine's Casco Bay Navigators eliminated the Carolina Crash from Division 1 play by beating them in the crossover game.  The win by Maine earns them their first ever trip to the Division 1 Nationals.  Congrats to Mike, John, and the rest of the Maine team! :-)

Meanwhile, in the other crossover, #1 seed Hoveround Lightning, which was also the tournament host team, sent the formerly mighty Tampa Generals to compete in Division 2, against Charlotte and the rest of the teams, which are yet to be determined.  Last year's Division 2 champs, the Boston Pitbulls, pulled out of league play this years due to some key injuries, but anticipate being back on the court for a full season next year.  Get well soon guys!

The Mountain Section Playoffs are scheduled for next weekend in Austin, Texas, and will decide on the next group of teams who will slot themselves into either Division 1 or Division 2 play.  The seeds are expected to hold.  The teams in contention are the:

1 - APVA Phoenix Heat
2 - Texas Stampede
3 - San Antonio Ruff Ryders
4 - Denver Harlequins
5 - Pasadena Texans
6 - U of A Wildchairs

The Pacific Division has some more can-con, with BC Bandits big guns 3.5 Garett Hickling and 3.0 Ian Chan participating for the California Quake and the San Diego Bushwhackers respectively.  The Pacific Sectional consists of the following teams, which play next weekend:

1 - San Diego Bushwhackers (yes, there is a second 'h' in Bushwhackers...)
2 - California Quake
3 - Portland Pounders
4 - Sharp Edge
5 - Southern California Plan B
6 - Nevada Bighorns

Canadian national team head coach, Joe Soares, who is quietly observing in Sarasota this weekend, will be coaching the Bushies next week in interestingly named Chula Vista, California, which will definitely be less chilly than snowy Ottawa.  Go figure.  (Go Sens!)

The Lakeshore Demolition dominated Heartland Division Sectionals won't be held for two weeks.  This section consists of the Pittsburgh Steelwheelers, Jackson Jags, Chicago Bears, Milwaukee Iron, Minnesota Ice, St. Louis Rams, Kentucky TNT and the #1 team in the USQRA, the Lakeshore Demolition.  The #5 team from the Atlantic Division would probably be able to compete well with the teams from this section who don't rhyme with "BreakMore," but sectional lines have to be drawn somewhere, and that's just the way it is.

Final standings in the Atlantic Section have yet to be finalized, but today's games will decide that.

09:00 - 7th/8th place game: (7) Atlanta Shepherd Smash vs. (8) EPVA New York Jets
10:30 - 5th/6th place game: (5) South Florida Rattlers vs. (6) Philadephia Magee Rolling Rebels
10:30 - 3rd/4th place game: (2) Tampa Generals vs. (4) CIR Carolina Crash
12:00 - 1st/2nd place game: (1) Sarasota's Hoveround Lightning vs. (3) Maine's Casco Bay Navigators

~That is all~