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OTTAWA ROOS © 2007
NEWS
ROOS Coach Competes on the World Stage
By: Craig Johnston
17U ROOS Co-Coach, Craig Johnston (#4) was part of the Canadian contingent of 175 Canadian Forces athletes, coaches, and support staff to compete in the 4th CISM Military World Games, an athletic competition second in size to the Olympic Games. The games, hosted in Mumbai and Hyderabad, India took take place October 14 to 21, 2007.
The volleyball competition consisted of 8 teams, in two pools of four. Pool A contained South Korea, Qatar, Canada and the Netherlands, and Pool B consisted of China, India, Brazil and Latvia. At the end of round-robin play, Canada placed last in its pool, losing 3-1 to Netherlands, 3-2 to Qatar and 3-0 to South Korea.
A championship pool was then formed consisting of the top two teams in each pool: China, South Korea, India and Qatar. Brazil, Canada, the Netherlands and Latvia made up the consolation pool. Brazil easily grabbed the 5th place spot in the consolation pool; however, there was a three-way tie for 6th place that had to be broken by sets for and against. After this decision, the final standings were Brazil, Netherlands, Canada and Latvia. The championship round ended with China defeating South Korea convincingly 3-0 for the gold medal and India defeating Qatar 3-0 for the bronze.
Overall, the competition was very fierce, with the top six teams consisting of professional or semi-professional athletes that are preparing for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The experience of traveling to India, their flavourful cuisine, and amazing hospitality is one that will not be soon forgotten.
The CISM Canadian Volleyball Team consisted of two other former ROOS players, #7 Jon Lucas who is now in Cold Lake, AB and #12 Ivan Karin who lives in Kingston, ON.
