The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) published the 2018 List of Prohibited Substances and Methods (List); along with, the 2018 Summary of Major Modifications and Explanatory The List comes into force on 1 January 2018.
“Annually, the Prohibited List review involves a very extensive stakeholder consultation process over the course of nine months,” said WADA Director General, Olivier Niggli. “In reviewing the List, experts examine such sources as: scientific and medical research; trends; and, intelligence gathered from law enforcement and pharmaceutical companies in order to stay ahead of those that endeavor to cheat the system,” Niggli continued.
The International Fistball Association (IFA) and the United States Fistball Association (USFA) invited today all IFA members around the world to participate in the IFA 2018 Fistball U18 Men’s and Women’s World Championships USA which will take place in Roxbury, New Jersey, USA, from
11 – 15 July 2018.
Fistball tradition north of the German-Danish border
Fistball had in Denmark’s most southern part – Sønderjylland (or Nordschleswig in German, respectively North Schleswig in English) – a long tradition, in particular among the German minority.
Since 1920, North Schleswig is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Today, the German minority in North Schleswig includes about 15,000 people among a total population of 250,000, and runs kindergarten’s, schools and libraries, as well as church and social work. It publishes a newspaper and offers sports and cultural activities. The minority is represented by the Bund Deutscher Nordschleswiger. Part of the minority’s identity is to contribute to a good and trustful relationship with the Danish majority and to build bridges between Germans and Danes.
WC 2007 – the Danish national team from North Schleswig
Fistball was highly popular in the 1950s, and was played in almost every village as well as in the sports clubs of the German minority. By the end of the 1960s, Handball took increasingly over. While some clubs would sporadically participate in tournaments in Schleswig-Holstein, the quality did not reach anymore the same level as in the 1950s.
In May 1987, fistball in North Schleswig was revived, among others due to the initiative of Günter Haagensen from Tondern/Tønder as well as of some clubs, which were supported by teams from North Frisia (in particular TSV Rot-Weiß Niebüll). A year later, North Schleswig championships could again be organized, and fistball was also played at the two big summer festivals of the German minority – the Pfingstturnier and the Knivsbergfest. Furthermore, teams from North Schleswig participated from 1988 until 2007 in the league in Schleswig-Holstein (winter and summer rounds). The development of fistball in Denmark was often supported and promoted by individuals from North Schleswig, for example Hans Peter Asmussen, as well as coach Uwe Jörck and the publisher of the magazine “Faustball-Sport”, Heino Kreye (both have unfortunately died). Mr. Kreye was championing Denmark’s participation at the World Championship 1990 in Austria, which was followed by participations in 1992, 1995, 1999, 2003 and in 2007. In the latter years, coach Olaf Neuenfeld significantly contributed to an increased quality of the team. But, as in the 1960s, fistball in North Schleswig/Denmark came once again to a halt due to a lack of investment in youth.
WC 2007 – positive spirits at the end of the match, despite loss against Austria
A new start
Interest in sports is shifting, also in North Schleswig, in particular among young people – individual sports are becoming more popular at the expense of traditional team sports. In response to this, the German minority in North Schleswig has, in addition to the sports activities in clubs, initiated the concept “Team Nordschleswig – Æ Mannschaft”.
Since 2016, Team Nordschleswig – Æ Mannschaft has evolved as a success story. Having started as a sheer football selection of the German minority in Denmark, the team participated in the EUROPEADA 2016 (football European cup for minorities). While the participation was no success in sports terms, the concept proved to be successful and the enthusiasm around the concept Æ Mannschaft is planned to be expanded to two additional sports – handball and fistball. Each of the three sports would have their own strategies and sports objectives. Team Nordschleswig – Æ Mannschaft is being organized by Bund Deutscher Nordschleswiger (association of the German minority – www.bdn.dk) and Deutscher Jugendverband für Nordschleswig (sports and leisure association of the German minority – www.djfn.dk).
The number one goal in the fistball division is to sustainably build a men’s team, which would participate for Denmark in international championships within a few years. In contrast to earlier fistball initiatives, the endeavor is this time fostered in multiple ways – in terms of sports, structures and marketing, including the support of fulltime employees.
Furthermore, Team Nordschleswig – Æ Mannschaft depends on the support of enthusiastic volunteers who contribute their knowledge and experience for a sustainable revival of fistball. Hence, former national team players Kurt Asmussen and Günter Haagensen have recently met with three representatives of Team Nordschleswig to discuss the possibilities of a new start. The discussants agreed on the following:
– First would be establishment of a men’s fistball team (primarily comprised of members of the German minority)
– Support from Asmussen und Haagensen, including with the identification of a coach
– A first training camp, from September 8 to 10, 2017, at the Bildungsstätte Knivsberg, Denmark
– Participation in international championships for Denmark with the World Championship 2019 in Winterthur, Switzerland, as goal
The collaboration with the two former national team players is already ongoing, and Kurt Asmussen was able to recruit German coach Roland Schubert for the training camp in September. After this, further discussions will be held if a firm collaboration can be established. “He (i.e. Roland Schubert) will look at everything and then decide to what extent things should continue”, says Kurt Asmussen.
WC 2007 – Kurt Asmussen in form
Team Nordschleswig – Æ Mannschaft faces a difficult legacy and knows about the expectations for this revival. These expectations have to be met to allow bringing North Schleswig and Denmark again back on the radar of international fistball.
Author: Uffe Iwersen, Team Nordschleswig – Æ Mannschaft
At the first International Fistball Association (IFA) Cocktail Reception powered by Sportradar, hosted in the framework of The World Games in Wroclaw and on the occasion of the presentation of the new IFA OTT platform www.ifa-fistball.tv, IFA President Karl Weiss suggested in the presence of IWGA President José Perurena and his wife to add a female fistball competition to The World Games 2021 Sports Program in Birmingham, Alabama. Fistball is part of The World Games since 1985 in London with a male competition. Six teams participated in Wroclaw where Germany defended the title in a thrilling 4:3 final.
“The best female fistball players deserve to be present in Birmingham. You will love to see them play.” The World Games 2021 Birmingham Sports Director Steve Mistrot may have listened well as IFA has expressed this wish not for the first time during the last years of cooperation with Birmingham, having had several meetings with IFA on the occasion of Sportaccord conferences. The World Games Birmingham Sports Program will be fixed after analysing the 2017 TWG edition.
Many sports leaders including IWGA Executive Board members Anna Arzhanova, Lukas Hinder and IWGA CEO Joachim Gossow as well as AIMS President Stephan Fox and AIMS Secretary General Gerd Zimmermann joined the reception at the hotel Sofitel, together with IFA Honorary President Ernesto Dohnalek and representatives of the participating teams, and other International Federations.
Felix Graf, Director Digital Platforms International of Sportradar presented the core of the entered long-term partnership between IFA and Sportradar. As a first step, the collaboration includes usage of Sportradar OTT – an innovative Over-the-top (OTT) video platform. The platform ifa-fistball.tv went live on the opening day of the World Games Fistball Tournament in Wroclaw, Poland, where fistball fans were able to watch the games in the online stream.
With the new “Over-the-top” video platform the International Fistball Association is exploring new avenues and opening to new technologies. “The new video platform brings value added for all fistball fans, clubs and associations. The aim is to develop IFA-Fistball.tv to a central platform where all fistball events will be shown. This adds transparency for all spectators who will not have to check various websites anymore to find the fistball event they would like to watch”, says IFA Secretary General Jörn Verleger. The platform is available free of charge to spectators, as well as to clubs and associations who will have the opportunity to disseminate their own streams.
Part of the partnership is also the marketing of advertisement and sponsoring on the digital platform. “The partnership with Sportradar is deliberately long-term. We are glad to have a strong partner on our side, and that we jointly want to continuously develop. The innovative OTT approach fits perfectly with our expectations. The platform presents itself in IFA “look and feel”, and is being customized to our requirements”, states Mr. Verleger.
“The collaboration with the International Fistball Association is another example for the usage of our new streaming product Sportradar OTT. We are glad to be able to offer a central platform for the fistball community, in collaboration with IFA”, said Felix Graf.
Sportradar OTT is the new video platform product of Sportradar AG, which offers holders of sports rights the opportunity to stream their contents directly live as well as video-on-demand to their fans via online channels. Besides the International Fistball Association, Sportradar OTT has recently entered collaborations with the European Handball Federation (EHF), German soccer club Eintracht Braunschweig, and Italian TV channel Sportitalia.
Sportradar is a global leader in understanding and leveraging the power of sports data with more than 1,650 employees in over 30 locations around the world. The company’s rapid growth is being enabled due to technological innovations and a deep understanding of clients’ business needs. Its commitment to outstanding service, quality and reliability makes Sportradar a trusted partner of more than 800 enterprises in over 80 countries. Sportradar has a unique position in the interface of the sports, media and sports betting fields.
“Sportradar OTT” is based on an innovative approach, how rights holders and Sportradar can collaborate in terms of audiovisual rights. “Sportradar OTT” offers a customized OTT platform that enables rights holders to manage their own brand and CI. Both parties are joining forces in terms of their respective key competencies – while Sportradar would ensure technical preparation and maintenance of the platform and monetize traffic via a fee or advertisement based model, the rights holders would focus on the generation and administration of contents. All generated revenues are being shared, which minimizes risk and effort for the respective associations and events.
Later on Michel Filliau, Senior Advisor to the GAISF President Patrick Baumann and Head of GAISF Administration Philippe Gueisbuhler as well as WADA Director Benjamin Cohen responsible for the European Regional Office and International Federations Relations joined the reception having just arrived in Wroclaw.
The Fistball final between Germany and Switzerland at The World Games in Wroclaw did not only fascinate the fans in the stadium: the TV broadcast on SPORT1 reached in its peak almost 300,000 spectators over three years of age (Z3+). With this, the market share of SPORT1 on Tuesday, July 25, was at a strong 3.0 % in the SPORT1 target audience of men between 14 and 49 years of age (M14-49). This was so far the best rating during the first five competition days at The World Games. In addition to SPORT1, the final and the match for the third place were shown on the Olympic Channel, as well as partly with geo-blocking on www.ifa-fistball.tv . Around 20 employees and seven cameras delivered a highly professional TV production, which was commented in Germany by SPORT1 moderator Hans-Joachim Wolff and fistball expert Uli Reißner. As SPORT1 has additionally informed, so far 80,000 spectators (Z3+) have on average watched the daily live programs in Free-TV on The World Games – with a continuously increasing tendency, among others due to a strong performance of the German World Games team, including a strong fistball national team.
“Fistball could add real value to the program offer of SPORT1. As the TV ratings show, we have been able to reach levels on a weekday afternoon that fit into the program structure of SPORT1”, says IFA Secretary General Jörn Verleger. “With the Women’s World Championship 2018 in Austria and the Men’s World Championship 2019 in Switzerland, we have in the coming years two top events in the DACH realm – the core market of SPORT1. If we are jointly able to realize a TV production as we did for The World Games, I see good chances for a broadcast in Free-TV.”
Furthermore, the new IFA OTT platform, which was only launched at the opening of The World Games, reached with more than 10,000 individual users on the first four days outstanding ratings. It is planned to further expand the platform, which is also available to national associations and clubs for the broadcasting of fistball events, in the future.
Germany has successfully defended its title at The World Games 2017 in Wroclaw, Poland. In an exciting final, the team of coach Olaf Neuenfeld won against Switzerland 4:3 (09:11, 07:11, 11:06, 07:11, 11:08, 12:10, 11:09).
In a rematch of the final 2013 in Colombia, the German team delivered a strong team performance and won after the last World and European Championships also the World Games title – despite bad luck in the first match, where Germany lost its main attacker Patrick Thomas due to a serious shoulder injury. In the subsequent matches, Steve Schmutzler, Lukas Schubert and Nick Trinemeier had to compensate for the loss of Thomas, and confirmed their world-class levels. AT first the fans witnessed a powerful start by the Swiss team, pulling ahead early in the match with a 2:0 lead. The Germans could bounce back and narrowed the gap to 1:2 with a superb performance in the third set. The Swiss team kept cool and was all over Germany in the fourth set, extending their lead to 3:1. Despite the set deficit Germany kept up their level, showed no signs of surrender and got back into the game winning the fifth and the sixth set to level the match. Driven by the huge number of fans the German team finished their masterpiece in the deciding set. This epic 7-set win lifts Germany on top of The World Games podium for the sixth time.
“I am speechless after such a game”, Olaf Neuenfeld, the German coach, admitted.
“Winning this game is more than sensational.” Spiker Steve Schmutzler, who scored points with almost every serve during the last set, analysed the match. “We worked hard for winnig set 7. I took a lot of risk – successfully!”
Oliver Lang, the Swiss coach, tried to analyze the reasons for the close defeat: “Probably we are not yet used to winnig such a game. Germany has much experience with such a situation and could only win after Patick’s injury.”
Before the final, Austria and Brazil matched for the bronze medal. The Austrians won 3:2 in an exciting game. Both teams showed spectacular saves and were head-to-head until (11:05, 10:12, 01:11, 12:10, 05:11). The Seleção had to compensate for the loss of Matheus Lammel who had broken his wrist yesterday. Klaus Thaller defends strong and made the difference with a strong performance – Austria took the bronze medal for the third time in a row.
Overall, the spectators of the fistball tournament witnessed exciting matches with the best four teams head-to-head throughout the tournament. “I have not experienced such a balanced performance at the top level for a long time”, German coach Olaf Neuenfeld said already on Monday. In total, more than 3000 spectators followed the competition at the centre court of Olawka stadium throughout the four days of the tournament.
The team around Competition Manager Christoph Oberlehner and Technical Delegate Winfried Kronsteiner, has ensured outstanding conditions together with a team of volunteers from Poland. Even inclement weather on Sunday could not derail the organization, as the games were temporarily moved to court 2.
The preliminary round featuring the six best mens’ teams was incredibly exciting with four squads – Austria, Germany, Brazil and Switzerland – head-to-head until the last matches. In the end, the Austrian team won the preliminary round – the team of coach Martin Weiß only lost its encounter against defending champion Germany. Both, Argentina and Chile did not proceed into the semifinals. However, in particular Chile showed strong form in the first days with close matches against Austria and Brazil. After four days of exciting competition, the Chilean team took the fifth place, following a victory over Argentina.
Defending champion Germany and Switzerland will be facing each other in the final of The World Games in Wroclaw. Both teams succeeded today in the semifinals over Brazil and Austria, respectively, and are playing for gold tomorrow, Tuesday afternoon at 3 pm in the Olawka stadium.
Today the spectators also witnessed the last matches of the preliminary round, where Austria emerged as winner of the group and Germany as runner up, respectively.
Austria – Brazil 3:1 (12:10, 12:14, 11:08, 11:09)
The encounter between Austria and Brazil – both head-to-head after the first two days – was a tight affair. In the end, Austria won the match 3:1.
Germany – Switzerland 3:2 (14:15, 12:10, 08:11, 11:07, 11:06)
German narrowly had the upper hand in a tight match against Switzerland. The Swiss team around a strong Raphael Schlattinger pulled ahead, winning the first set with 15:14. Germany immediately equalized and took the second set. The exciting match went over the full distance with the German team winning the final set and hence the match.
Argentina – Chile 3:1 (11:04, 11:08, 06:11, 11:09)
In the South American derby between neighboring countries Argentina and Chile, the Argentinians got better off the starting blocks and established a 2:0 lead. While Chile bounced back in set three (11:06), Argentina re-seized control in the fourth set, winning the game 3:1. Both teams will face each other again tomorrow, in the match for places five and six, respectively.
Following the last match of the preliminary round, the semifinals were on the agenda. The best four teams of the tournament so far had fought hard for the positions in the preliminary round.
Semifinal 1: Germany – Brazil 3:0 (11:06, 11:05, 11:07)
The German team drove home a clear victory over Brazil in the first semifinal match. The Seleção was not able to challenge the defending champion. Germany’s Steve Schmutzler and Lukas Schubert were in great form, while the Brazilian attackers were not able to build up sufficient pressure on the German defense.
Semifinal 2: Austria – Switzerland 3:0 (13:15, 09:11, 11:13)
What a close match for the second spot in tomorrow’s final! Austria and Switzerland were head-to-head in all sets – however, the Swiss team was able to win all three of them by small margin. Switzerland is hence playing for the title against Germany tomorrow, while Austria is facing Brazil in the Bronze medal match.
The preliminary round of the fistball tournament at The World Games 2017 in Wroclaw is a tight affair: four teams – Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Brazil – are head-to-head with six points each before the last preliminary round matches tomorrow. Due to inclement weather, the competition was paused for two hours during lunchtime, and continued on court 2.
Germany – Chile 3:0 (11:09, 11:04, 11:00)
Following the loss of attacker Patrick Thomas due to injury and a rather poor start into the tournament, Germany has bounced back in their match against Chile. The German team increasingly took things under control, and won the third set without losing a point.
Switzerland – Argentina 3:0 (11:05, 11:08, 11:02)
The Swiss national team also boosted its performance in its match against Argentina. Before the game, both teams had to show patience – due to the inclement weather, the match was postponed for about two hours, and held on court 2. The Swiss team kept control throughout the game, and drove home a 3:0 sets win.
Brazil – Chile 3:2 (10:12, 13:11, 08:11, 11:07, 11:05)
The game between the South American teams from Brazil and Chile went over the full distance. The Seleção continued to show its strong form in the tournament. However, at first Chile had things under control. As in their match against Austria, the Chilean squad took the first set. The Brazil then equalized by winning set two with 13:11. The match continued to be a nail-biter with spectacular scenes on both sides, in which the Brazilian team eventually had the upper hand.
Austria – Argentina 3:0 (11:03, 11:04, 11:09)
In their first match of the day, the Austrians delivered a strong performance. With Jean Andrioli, Martin Pühringer and Gustav Gürtler the squad of coach Martin Weiß took the lead early on and won the first two sets clearly. The Argentinian team bounced back in set three, however Austria kept things under control and drove home a 3:0 win.
Germany – Brazil 3:1 (10:12, 11:03, 11:07, 11:05)
In the fifth match of the day, two of the favorites for the title faced each other – Brazil and Germany. The Seleção, which had so far been undefeated in the tournament, lost its first match. Germany’s attack around captain Fabian Sagstetter and Lukas Schubert scored many points, while the Brazilian defense – in the match against Chile an absolute stronghold – increasingly lost its grip on the game.
Switzerland – Austria 3:1 (12:10, 11:05, 08:11, 11:08)
In the last match of day two, the Austrian team, which had led the interim standings yesterday, played against neighbor Switzerland. The spectators witnessed chances on both sides, with the Austrians winning one set. However, in the end Switzerland with a strong Raphael Schlattinger had the upper hand and secured a 3:1 sets victory.
Deutsch
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) published the 2018 List of Prohibited Substances and Methods (List); along with, the 2018 Summary of Major Modifications and Explanatory The List comes into force on 1 January 2018.
