Panic at the European Championship in Portugal
Recently we received a message from Roos Denisse, chairman of the USC-frisbee association. She wrote an enthusiastic report about Panic Ultimate's participation in the European Championship in Portugal. Read on for more information!
"Last year an appeal was made on Facebook to all Dutch clubs interested in sending a team to the European Ultimate Frisbee Club Championship in Portugal. I reacted cautiously, fully realizing that Panic probably wouldn't stand a chance against the other teams that were interested. Nevertheless, we were invited to the selection tournament. And under the guise of "a fun day with competitive frisbee on the beach" we gathered some members. In the end, to our amazement, it turned out that the other two interested teams had meanwhile withdrawn and that we definitely had the spot. The spot to the European championship in Portugal !From then on we started to shape the team properly with players and every 2 weeks or more, in weather and (much!) wind, traveled to the beach to train.
In mid-October the time had finally come. The championship took place in Portimao, a southern city in Portugal. Only a few of our players had ever played on this level and the results could only be guessed at. The pressure that comes with this level, the possible physical contact that many of our players were not used to, not to mention the heat that we would have to deal with, as the temperature can easily rise in the hottest part of the day to 30 degrees easily. We estimated the probability of losing all games as a real option. That's why we decided that our goal was to win only the most important match of the tournament: the crossover game. This game would make sure we couldn't finish in last place.
We were placed in a tough pool, our first game we played against the German team, which eventually played in the final. The result was 7-13… Not so bad, was our conclusion. The second game of that day against an Israeli team we did it, we won on universe point. What a joy, we weren't the worst of the tournament!
In the end that remained the only game in our pool with a positive result from our side, but the crossover game on the second day against the Austrians, we won! This meant we were definitely in the top 12th to 16th. Then we also won the matches against the Czech Republic and another team from Austria. Only a team from Sweden was stronger than us, so we ended up in 13th place out of 23 teams. And that even despite the fact that half of the team had been quite the party animal at the end of the second day at the ever-escalating Frisbee party.
On the final day the weather was not too good, but during the award ceremony we were rewarded with a beautiful rainbow. Frisbee is not a big sport in the Netherlands, it is relatively easy to play at a high level, but reaching the real top is a big task, just like with any sport. We came closer to the spirit prize, an award given to the most sporting and fair playing team in the tournament, because even at this high level there are no referees to direct the match. In the end we finished in fourth place in the spirit.
We are very satisfied about this unexpected result from Panic and we hope that we can share many more (inter)national successes with you!"
Report by Roos Denisse, chairman Panic Ultimate