THE COUNTDOWN TO THE WORLD GAMES 2022 BIRMINGHAM CONTINUES

The world has always been united with sporting activities and The World Games Birmingham 2022 will be no exception.

The 2022 World Games will be the 11th World Games, an international multi-sport event, meant for sports, or disciplines or events within a sport, that were not contested in the Olympic Games and will bring over one hundred and ten (110) countries together with over three-thousand six hundred athletes (3600) to compete for the top honours.

Birmingham will be hosting these athletes from the numerous countries and have promised to make the games one to remember.

There will be thirty-four games contested during these games at fifteen venues. Some of these games include the following;

Tug of War;                                                                                                                                                            The World Games 2022 will feature Outdoor Tug of War. Two teams, in a test of strength, pull on opposite ends of a rope. The goal is to bring the rope a certain distance in one direction against the force of the opposing team’s pull. Two teams of eight, whose total mass must not exceed a class maximum weight, align themselves at opposite ends of the rope. The rope is marked with a center-line and two markings, each 13 feet apart from either side of the center-line. The teams start with the rope’s center-line directly above a line marked on the ground, and once the contest has commenced, attempt to pull the other team such that the marking on the rope closest to their opponent crosses the center-line.

2017 WORLD GAMES TUG OF WAR CHAMPIONS (COUNTRY)

• Indoor/540kg – Chinese Taipei (women)
• Outdoor/640kg – Great Britain (men)
• Outdoor/700 kg – Switzerland (men)

WATERSKI & WAKEBOARD;                                                                                                                          Waterski and wakeboard are towed water sports in which an individual is pulled behind a boat riding skis or a wakeboard. Waterski has three different categories: Slalom, Trick and Jump.

SLALOM: In Slalom, skiers use only one ski, with their feet facing forward, one in front of the other. Skiers must navigate around a six-buoy course in order to complete the pass. While the boat speed is fixed, the rope length is not — it is shortened after each successful pass. The turn buoys are positioned 11.5 meters away from the center of the slalom course to ensure that as the rope is shortened, skiers are required to use the momentum generated through their turns to swing up on the side of the boat and reach out in order to get their ski around the next buoy. The skier who successfully passes around the most buoys on the shortest rope wins.

TRICK: In Trick, skiers use small, oval-shaped skis. Skiers are given two 20-second runs, during which they perform a series of pre-selected tricks. One pass is for hand tricks, which includes surface turns, rotations over the wake and flips. The second pass includes toe tricks, which are performed by completing wake turns and rotations with only a foot attaching them to the handle. A trick cannot be repeated and each one has a specific point value. A panel of judges assesses which tricks were completed correctly and assigns a predetermined point value to each successfully completed trick. The skier with the most points wins.

JUMP: In Jump, skiers use two long skis to ride over a jump ramp in an attempt to travel the longest distance. As a skier approaches the ramp, the skier will zigzag behind the boat in a series of cuts to generate speed and angle, and will hit the base of the jump ramp at a near-right angle to the boat. The winner is the skier who travels the farthest calculated distance and successfully rides away.

Wakeboard has one category in The World Games: Freestyle

FREESTYLE: In Wakeboard, the board is a small, mostly rectangular, thin board with very little displacement and shoe-like bindings attached. The sport is a mixture of water skiing, snowboarding, and surfing. Using edging techniques, the rider can move outside of the wake or cut rapidly toward it. Jumps are performed by riding up the wake and launching into the air. While in the air, the rider attempts to do tricks. The rider is permitted one fall during his two passes and the judges award points for three distinct elements – execution (technical difficulty), intensity (the scale of the trick) and composition (variety). The rider who gains the highest score wins.

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN

• United States (waterski)
• Australia/New Zealand (wakeboarding)

POPULAR COUNTRIES

• Australia, New Zealand, United States

2017 WORLD GAMES WATERSKI & WAKEBOARD CHAMPION (COUNTRY)

• Waterski Classic/Jump – Germany (men), Belarus (women)
• Waterski Classic/Slalom – Czech Republic (men) Germany (women)
• Waterski Classic/Trick – Australia (men), Belarus (women)
• Wakeboard/Freestyle – Japan (men), United States (women)

ARCHERY                                                                                                                                                                The game of Archery uses a stringed bow to propel an arrow toward a target with the goal of being as close to the center of the target as possible. There are three disciplines of Archery offered in The World Games: Target and Field, including Recurve and Field Barebow.

TARGET; In Target, there is a ranking round and elimination round. The ranking round consists of all athletes shooting 72 arrows at a distance of 50m with an 80cm single target face. The highest score that can be achieved with one arrow is 10 points. The lowest score is five points. The highest scorer will be ranked number 1, the second-highest scorer will be ranked number 2, and so on, until all athletes are ranked.  Athletes will then be paired into a head-to-head elimination draw. During the elimination round, athletes shoot 15 arrows in five ends of three arrows. The athlete with the highest 15-arrow score wins the match and advances.

FIELD ARCHERY; In Field Archery, the difference between Recurve and Barebow is the type of bow used. There is a qualification round and elimination round. The qualification round consists of 12 unmarked and 12 marked targets being shot. Athletes shoot three arrows at each target; six points is the maximum that can be scored with one arrow. All athletes will shoot on an unmarked course of 12 targets, meaning that they must use their skill to guess the distance, size and shooting angle of each target. After shooting at the unmarked targets, athletes will be ranked and re-grouped according to the ranking they have achieved from the points they have accumulated. The same athletes will then shoot a course of 12 marked targets — meaning the distance and target size will be known. At the conclusion of the 24 targets, all athletes will be ranked from 1-12 according to the amount of points they have accumulated. In the elimination round, athletes ranked number 1 and 2 are protected from the early elimination rounds and will proceed directly to the semi-finals. The remaining 10 athletes will be placed in two “pool groups” and will compete for the remaining two semifinal spaces. The winning athletes will be paired with their semifinal opponent and shoot a head-to-head match of three arrows each, over four separate distances.  The athlete with the highest score will progress to the gold medal match; the losing semifinalist will shoot for the bronze medal.

POPULAR COUNTRIES

• South Korea, United States

2017 WORLD GAMES  ARCHERY CHAMPIONS (COUNTRY)

• Compound Target/Individual – Denmark (men), Colombia (women)
• Compound Target/Team – Denmark (mixed)
• Field/Barebow – Hungary (men), Italy (women)
• Field/Recurve – Italy (men), Germany (women)

HANDBALL                                                                                                                                                            Handball has one discipline offered in The World Games: Beach Handball.

Beach Handball is a team sport played on sand where players pass, bounce or roll a ball, trying to throw it in the goal of the opposing team. Each team features three standard players, and a goalie or specialist on each side. During defensive possessions, teams are made up of three defenders and one goalie. However, on offense, three different players sub in and the extra spot the goalie filled on defense is filled by the specialist on offense. Games are split into two 10-minute halves which serve as individual games within the overall match. Each match is a best-out-of-two scenario. The goal is to win both halves to secure the victory — however, if each team wins one game, then the game goes into a sudden death shootout. The score system is based on a one- or two-point structure. A goal scored by any of the players, excluding the specialist or goalie, is worth one point. There are three ways for a goal to be worth two points. The first is an “alley-oop,” which involves the ball being passed to a teammate who catches and shoots the ball without their feet touching the ground. The second is the goalie or specialist scoring a goal. If he or she scores — no matter how they score — it is an automatic two points. The third way is by making a “spectacular” or 360-degree shot. As these names imply, these types of goals involve the offensive player doing an acrobatic aerial maneuver, spinning their bodies around in a 360-degree turn and hitting the ball.

POPULAR COUNTRIES

• Australia, Brazil, Croatia, United States

2017 WORLD GAMES CHAMPION (COUNTRY)

• Brazil (men & women)

BILLIARDS                                                                                                                                                            Billiards are a cue-sport generally played with a cue-stick, used to strike billiard balls and cause them to move around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by elastic bumpers (cushions). There are three disciplines of Billiards offered in The World Games: Carom – 3 Cushion, Pool – 9 Ball and Snooker.

CAROM; In Carom, the game is played on a 1.5 x 3 meter playing area, which does not have pockets, only cushions. There are three spotted balls used: a white, yellow and red ball. One opponent uses the white ball as their cue ball and the other opponent uses the yellow. The red is neutral. To score a point, a player’s cue ball must contact three or more cushions and also contact both of the other two balls in one shot. The last ball must not be contacted until a combination of three or more rails and the first object ball have been contacted. This counts as one point, regardless of how the point is made. Either of the other two balls may be contacted first; it does not matter which one, it is up to the player. The player continues to play until he misses. The match is played to 40 points with equalizing innings.

POOL; In 9-Ball Pool, the game is played on a 9 x 4.6 foot playing area, with six pocket holes, using 9 object balls and a cue ball. All object balls are different colors and are numbered one through nine. The objective of the game is to legally pocket the 9-ball to win. The balls are played in numerical order, commencing with the 1-ball, then the 2-ball, and so on. It is important to note that provided that the cue ball has first contact with lowest number ball, any other ball(s) that is pocketed will count and the player will continue to play. If the other ball happens to be the 9-ball, then the player has won that particular rack (game).

SNOOKER; In Snooker, the game is played on a 11.8 x 5.10 foot playing area, with six pocket holes. There is one cue-ball, 15 red balls, and six colored balls. When there are still red balls on the table, the player’s first shot on every turn must be to hit a red with the cue-ball. If they pocket that red, then they score one point and their next shot may be any of the other colored balls The red stays in the pocket. If they pocket that color, then they score the value of the color and their next shot must be a red. The color goes back on its own spot. If they fail to pocket a ball, or if they foul, then their turn is ended and their opponent will play. When all red balls are gone, the colored balls are pocketed in order and stay in the pocket. The player with the most points once all the balls are pocketed, wins.

POPULAR COUNTRIES

• Australia, Canada, Ireland, the Philippines, United Kingdom, United States

2017 WORLD GAMES BILLIARDS CHAMPION (COUNTRY)

• Carom – Spain (men)
• 9-Ball – Philippines (men), China (women)
• Snooker – Great Britain (mixed)

more updates will be shared on the other games and venues soon, stay tuned…..