Umeå – Mission accomplished for the hosts: the two gold medals stay in Sweden.
Men’s Competition
There was no doubt which was the better team in the morning’s third/fourth place match – the result 9-1 speaks for itself and Czech Republic won the bronze.
Sweden vs. Finland in the final was nothing but a thriller, especially the last period was packed with chances to score and spectators shouting. Finland was up by two goals after the first 20 minutes, but the Swedes came back and evened out the score to 2-2 in the middle of the last period. The local profile Mattias Mattsson took on the role as hero of the game by finding the net behind the well playing Finnish goalkeeper with five minutes left to play. 3-2 to the host nation and Sweden is student world champions!
Women’s Competition
Spectators coming to IKSU Arena on Sunday morning could watch a tight bronze match between Finland and Switzerland, that the Finnish team won by 4-3.
In the final, Sweden was expected by many to be a stronger team than Czech Republic, but after the first period the Czechs were up by two goal against one. The yellow-dressed Swedes were doing like their fellow men’s team and came back, and towards the end of the game the score was 4-2 to Sweden. With only two minutes left to play, Eliska Krizova scored for the Czechs but the game ended 4-3 and Sweden’s double is a fact. Worth mentioning is the Czech men’s team that made as much noise as the Swedish fans on the stands.
Some Voices about the 2010 WUFC
Dr Peter Katzmaier is a FISU representative and head of the medical team and responsible for the doping controls. He is happy to have no major injuries to report and thinks the tournament has been running smooth. ‘It has been very well organized, and the doping controls have been going well. We test players after the finals and had some tests on the Saturday also. It is so nice in Umeå that everything is so close – the university, the hospital, the IKSU clinic – and the medical service hasn’t faced any problems.’
It was Aari Vehniainen’s second student world championship as a technical delegate. Aari makes sure everything is according to the rules, and he thinks that this has been a very successful tournament. ‘In my opinion, it is most important that the teams are satisfied. I have talked to almost all teams and they have been happy with it. This is a short tournament; many players are used to play other types of international tournaments with one game per day. This makes it even more crucial that transport and food works well. The shuttle buses and IKSU’s restaurant have been great. It is obvious that the staff here in Umeå are used to high level floorball events, from IKSU, Dalen and Umeå City (they all play in the highest league in Sweden).’
Johanna S:t Clair-Renard is the President of the Organizing Committee and is also very happy with how the championship turned out. There have been some smaller issues along the way to deal with, but that’s always the case, she says. ‘For example, six teams arrived at the same time and we had standard buses to pick them up. They didn’t fit everyone, but Umeå is a small city with short distances to drive, and it’s been easy to just make a phonecall and have things sorted out. Since then, we have used larger buses.’
Finally, one detail has been different from how we are used to: the women’s final is played after the men’s.
‘Women’s floorball is strong in Umeå and we want to put emphasis on that, said Johanna S:t Clair Renard and gives a very positive last comment: ‘This has been incredibly inspirational!’
(Source: Amanda Lundmark, OC 2010 WUC Floorball)
