2009 CMAS Games

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.

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it's more polite on the grating than on the subs bench

Hey Duck,

I did indeed mean adulthood. As English is not my native language, there's always the risk of this kind of mistakes :-D

Anyway, what is done is done and as you say, the future will point out which way to go. Meanwhile we, as players, can continue to work on the improvement of our sports across federations I hope.

Liam, your last sentence says it all: we should be realistic.

Hi Guys,

If theres anymore info regards to CMAS 2009, please inform me as soon as you guys can... SA would like to start planning and see what the details are, thank you!

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Regards,

Marius

"Great works are performed, not by strength but by perseverence" - Samuel Johnson

I'm sure the info is coming as fast as it can. That would be mid September, right?

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Just in case you weren't sure, it's official -- CMAS sucks.
Oh yeah, and now they're broke.

Morning all...

Just want to make double sure that SA will be able to compee in the CMAS Games and it won't only be European countries or etc etc... thanks!!!

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Regards,

Marius

"Great works are performed, not by strength but by perseverence" - Samuel Johnson

think that underwater hockey is a so much known sport that we now think about how can we eliminate some nations...
hope that Tunisian organisation will be better thant turk'one : results on web site, match on tv or web tv, good feast at the end ...

Poor sport, manipulate by politicians, just for their own popularity...

PS : I didn't know that tunisia have a national team of underwater hockey... I hope they will be allowed to play !!!

To my knowledge, who is eligible (or how) for Games from UW Hockey has not been made public. Tunisia, if they have an uw hockey team, cannot participate in uw hockey at the games as they do not belong to the CMAS uw hockey commission.

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Carol Rose

SA and all countries members of CMAS wil be allowed to play in the CMAS world games..UWH is played in Tunisia. Antoine

So Tony have CMAS once again changed their rules to suit themselves, as Carol is correct that Tunisia is not a member of the CMAS hockey ciommission so at this time they are ineligible to play. This fact can be seen by visiting the cmas federations page of the CMAS site. It quite clearly states whom are members and Tunisia are not. CMAS - Hockey

No doubt a simple oversight again, buy maybe as in the past there is rules for CMAS and dfferent rules for evevrybody else,

Everybody will be welcome in Colombia where all the besst teams will be

Cheers

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WAA The best in Underwater Sports

I think Tony gotcha Graham. He didn't say Tunisia would be allowed to play Hockey at the World games. He just said all member countries could play. And as a separate and completely unrelated sentence mentions the fact that Tunisia plays hockey. Kinda sneaky putting them together that way implying that Tunisia would be allowed to play Hockey at the Games.

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Just in case you weren't sure, it's official -- CMAS sucks.
Oh yeah, and now they're broke.