FINNISH FOOTBAG CHAMPIONSHIPS - RESULTS

Here is a report and the results of the 4th annual Finnish Footbag 
Championships. This year the tournament was bigger and better than 
ever before. This three day tournament and was held 27th-29th of 
October in Turku, two hours from Helsinki. 

The tournament started on Friday with the media conference in the Turku 
Fair Center at 11.00. Then the Team Finland top freestylers had a 
demonstration in the big shopping center right downtown Turku and after 
that at the same spot there was a warm-up jam and a players meeting for 
all competitors until 7 PM. After that we all went to the Sports Hall the Net 
prelims and intermediate freestyle was held and where all the competitors 
could stay for the tournament. for some more freestyle and net warm-up.

On Saturday morning at 10.00 AM Intermediate and Pro Singles net 
Prelims started and after they were over started the doubles. When the 
last doubles matches were done it was time to start intermediate freestyle. 
Of all the 31 Intermediate freestylers it was won by Juho Marjo the 
youngest player of the tournament who had just turned 12. He did an 
amazingly choreographed routine with only 3 drops and 119 adds in the 
finals! After the intermediate Finals about 9.00 PM started the players 
party and the Hall was open for pick up netgames and freestyle shred. 

On Sunday morning at 9.00 AM we had a nice breakfast for all the 
competitors and transportation with a bus to the Finals site that was in the 
Turku Fair Center in conjunction with the Move2000! Sportexpo. The 
Finals started at 12.00 and there was a bigger crowd that we could have 
ever expected, if you came too late you actually were not able to see it 
because there were too many people around the court that was 
surrounded with a rope. It was great. The Finals started with Open 
Freestyle. We had 16 players which from 8 were cut to the Finals, all the 
routines were very high quality and showed that there really are some 
amazing new freestylers in Finland. After that there was the Match for 
third place in Doubles Net where Olli Savolainen&Jesse Ruotsalainen 
beat Aleksi Öhman&Jani Markkanen. An awesome match that showed to 
the crowd the other aspect of footbag. Then it was time for the 45 second 
shred. All the pro players went into to a half circle and one at a time in the 
ranking order went into the middle to show his skills when the other 
players cheered for him with the crowd. After the Shred contest It was 
time for the Doubles net finals, Jukka Peltola/Justin Sexton against the 
current champions Tuomas Kärki/Jesse Fryckman. With Tuomas setting 
Jesse up for huge spikes they were just unbeatable and they took the 
crown in two sets. The last event of the Finals was pro freestyle finals 
which was probably the most awesome show of the whole tournament. 
After the amazing Finals there was the awards ceremony and then it was 
time to thank the spectators and close the 4th annual Finnish Footbag 
Championships, after the good-byes people started heading home and 
when you looked outside you saw the first snow started snowing down 
and the official Finnish Footbag season for the year 2000 was over.

Here are the results of the tournament:

Open Freestyle (Top 8 of 16 competitors):

1. Justin Sexton
2. Mika Koistinen
3. Ilkka Malin
4. Juho Vesa
5. Samuli Viitanen
6. Jere Linnanen
7. Jere Vainikka
8. Miikka Laine

Open Singles Net (Top 4 of 20 competitors)

1. Tuomas Kärki
2. Jani Markkanen
3. Jesse Fryckman
4. Jesse Ruotsalainen

Open Doubles Net (Top 4 teams of 22 competitors)

1. Tuomas Kärki & Jesse Fryckman
2. Justin Sexton & Jukka Peltola
3. Olli Savolainen & Jesse Ruotsalainen
4. Aleksi Öhman & Jani Markkanen

Intermediate Freestyle (Top 12 from 31 competitors)

1. Juho Marjo
2. Toni Tuormaa
3. Antti Lehikoinen
4. Jyri Ilama
5. Sakarias Liukko
6. Jaakko Inkinen
7. Ville Laakso
8. Mikko Lepistö
9. Lasse Salmenhaara
10. Sami Hirvonen
11. Juha Heinonen
12. Uve Poom

Intermediate Singles Net (Top 4 of 28 competitors)

1. Jaakko Inkinen
2. Tuukka Antikainen
3. Timo Vorne
4. Jyri Ryyppö

Intermediate Doubles Net (Top 4 teams of 21 competitors)

1. Mikko Inkinen & Jaakko Inkinen
2. Jani Lirkki & Juha Heinonen
3. Matti Ellonen & Joni Puska
4. Mikko Tapaninaho & Pekka Marjamäki


It was truly a great year for footbag in Finland. This tournament showed 
that the numbers and the level of players has gone up amazingly fast. 
Now it is time to choose the new Team Finland for the year 2001 which 
you can check out soon from www.footbag.fi (there are lot of new faces...) 
and get ready for the next footbag season in Finland and make it even 
better.   

Justin Sexton
Tournament Director
justinsexton@footbag.fi