Lindsay Hodgins retains her Junior Girls title
The 2014 World Tournament was held from July 14 to 26 in Buffalo (Hamburg), New York. The exact location was the «Hamburg Fairgrounds and Event Center» where 48 portable courts were installed along with the electronic scorekeeping system. The competition regrouped 1264 participants including 135 Canadians.
As usual, the participants were placed by descending R%, generally in groups or classes of 16 with 40 shoe games. Besides determining prize winners in each class, the best averages in their respective division advanced to the championship classes. Here are the champions crowned in the 8 divisions:
Men: Alan FRANCIS, Defiance, OH 15-0 86.2%
Women: Joan ELMORE, Mt. Juliet, TN 15-0 86.9%
Elders (30′): David HOLMES, Charleston, WV 15-0 83.6%
Senior Men (40′): Raymond BEDARD, Webster, MA 10-1 60.7%
Senior Women: Ruth RIFE, Weston, OH 7-1 74.1%
Junior Boys: Hayden LEE, Santa Rosa, CA 8-1 76.8%
Junior Girls: Lindsay HODGINS, Duncan, B.C. 4-1 53.8%
Cadets: Ryan SCHEPERS, Lake Ozark, MO 5-0 63.5%
Two champions succesfully defended their crown won last year. The first one is Lindsay Hodgins, from B.C., in the Junior Girls. She becomes the first Canadian to win that title at least two times. Kaitlyn Pond from Ontario finished 4th and gave the champ her only loss in an academic last round. The second one is Alan Francis, from Ohio, who adds to his legend in winning his 19th Men’s title. He was defeated by Brian Simmons in the prelims, but proved to be unbeatable in the championship round.
Joan Elmore from Tennessee regained her Women’s title, recording the high average of all the participants in Buffalo with 86.9%. Quebec’s Sylvianne Moisan took the 8th place. Sylvianne shot 79.7% against Elmore who replied with 90.5% in 74 shoes. Last year’s champ, Cindy Hoffman, gave the best opposition to Elmore with an 80.2%, but it also proved to be unsufficient.
The junior boys gave quite a show when Californian Hayden Lee, after a triple way tie for first, came back to beat Brandon Pearl in the finale, 42-39 with a double while trailing 39-36. New champions were crowned in the Seniors including Ruth Rife who also won an exciting playoff 42-36 against Sheila Shepard in what was to be the longest game of the Senior Women at 76 shoes. Duncan McKenzie, from Nova Scotia, placed 8th in the Senior Men’s won by Ray Bedard.
In class play, six Canadians won their group, including three women from Ontario: Carol Kurt (G), Tracey Snell (H) and Kerri Alderson (I), two men: Martin Favreau (D-1), Richard Solnik (J-2); and one junior: Mike Marshall (D).
One of the highlites of the 2014 World tournament was the presence, for the first time, of 4 web cameras (via Drop Cam Pro) providing live video action for the benefit of internet users. They received more than 3 million visits!
The 2015 World Tournament will be held in Topeka, Kansas from July 13-25, while the 2016 event was awarded to Montgomery, Alabama.
Links:
Results and report (on the NHPA website)
Article in the Independent Sports News (Jr Girls Repeat Champion Returns Home)
Junior Champs in action: Lindsay and Hayden.
Junior Girls championship group.
Sr Men group with Duncan McKenzie (sitting 2nd from right)
