torto, forget about having juniors at the cmas games.... as has been clearly outlined before, the intent of the games is to have elite teams only. they want to showcase the sports. thats why they also dont want masters there. just the highest grade in theory. (if that offends some masters who know they are better than some of the elite teams... just play elite again i guess!
there has been discussion before about holding juniors and masters events separately... tony has stated this from the very beginning. however, i'm sure no-one is surprised to see that they haven't gotten around to that yet as cmas is still focussed on getting the games format running and working and successfull... and the underwater hockey segment of the games has obviously had a lot of obstacles thrown up in front of it. things take time, and i'm sure once the wrinkles are ironed out of the main comp (and making sure the games are accepted and attended is obviously a big wrinkle!) then focus can turn to setting up whatever qualifying comps and age-group comps are required (and demanded).
i think it's fair enough that a minimum number of teams be required to make a proper grade. having 3 junior teams in a grade at a worlds is frankly a bit bollocks. if it takes a few more years until more countries have internal junior competitions running and junior structures and therefore the capacity to attend a junior worlds, then maybe we need to wait those few years before the comp is introduced. in the meantime, all countries have competitions with their neighbours where they look to get experience for their juniors, and that might have to remain the case for a while if we can't support the numbers to create a worthwhile comp. don't tell me someone somewhere is too isolated to be able to do this... i'm from nz, the arse end of nowhere.
fred makes a very good point that we are indeed in our infancy still as a sport... our senior grades are supported by leagues and comps in every country that plays hockey BUT how many countries actually have junior age group competitions and structures that can be expected to support a junior world champs? most countries are only really getting started in this regard. i liked to see the juniors in sheffield for example but i actually thought and think that having them at worlds is a bunch of crap... it's not meaningful enough when so many can only come every now and again.
i played every level of juniors we had as i grew up and all my competition was against our southern hemisphere neighbours... we still got a good taste of international competition and learned a truckload from it, but we never went to any world champs... it's not a disaster if it doesn't happen yet.
when the numbers support it, lets do it, until then, i think we should be realistic.