Laurens van der Klis

Aradsol is the deserved champion of the tournament as the winner of their group, playing against almost all of the strongest teams (excluding Barcelona and B.A. Skaters) and not losing a single game! Statistics show the team’s strenght does not lie in baskets scores averaging around 37 points per game. Indeed, in contrast with several other teams, who frequently display ‘monster’ scores against weaker opponents, Aradsol rarely wins with a huge margin. ‘Big’ games were won with a minimal margin of 1 to 5 points, a gap breached with only one or two baskets. In this second appearance in the championship, the Paris team had to play seven though matches to emerge victorious. A hard-earned victory indeed!

In a brief prize ceremony, the coveted silver-gold winner’s plate was handed over to team coach Laurent Goodrige by the lovely championship 'Miss'. Runners-up Amsterdam I’s captain Tobias Wulffraat received a smaller version for their 2nd place. Having reached the third place as a debuting team, the B.A. Skaters got 8 sets of NIKE wheels, enough for eight pairs of skates! Cologne DunkNIX received a retro-style NIKE basketball as a consolation prize having just missed the podium. After the group games, Cologne DunkNIX was allowed to add a player of the knocked-out Groningen team (Robert-Jan Steenbergen) to replace their injured player Martin Tower. Their last group game against Annecy was played and won with only three Cologne players on the court.
The strong German team Skateclub was the most unlucky team of the tournament losing from both Barcelona in their group games and Aradsol in the quarter final with the smallest margin possible, only 1 point. Having registered as the last team, the aptly named debutants The Slackers from the UK, were disqualified after not appearing for their games in the come-back round. Although a little disappointed, they still showed tremendous enthusiasm and promise.

In general the level of the game has considerably increased. After last year's dominance of the Amsterdam superstars, the Rollerhoops, the present line-up featured around 7 candidates for the titel. Audience reactions were very positive, commenting on the attractiveness, speed and excitement of the game. The championship was extra special due to the presence of coach Muhammad Afzal and manager Mr. Hafeez Ahmad from the Pakistan Roller Basketball Association. Hopefully we will be able to see the Pakistan team in action soon!

More attention must be paid to the rules of the game as many travelling violations and fouls committed where not punished appropriately. However, refereeing level was generally of considerably better quality this year. Also the presence of two referees on every game (except one) was a solid improvement.

	Prize ceremony (photo: Paskal Dupoy)

I would like to thank the referees Stefan Waack, Florian Juenemann, Torsten ‘Toto’ Lange, Tobias Wulffraat, Wichert Witteveen, Harmen de Boer, Fernon Lagenhorst, Helge, Laurent Goodrige, Joost Hartman and Muhammad Afzal for their ‘whistling’. I would also like to thank Theo van Andel, the announcer, for his invaluable contributions, being available constantly, Torsten Blank for his assistance in the result calculations, the scorekeeper of the Omniskaters, Jaap Lous for the design and production of the certificates, the Pakistan delegation for their presence, help and gifts and all those who helped setting up and clearing the fields especially Henk Koekkoek, Harro Merkus, Dennis Tertaas and Marco Hollenberg. Finally I thank the organizers and sponsors of the Amsterdam Skate Festival 2004 for making this event possible, especially Joost Hartman and Elwin Swinkels.

Laurens van der Klis
Championship official

p.s. Images and movie clips will be available soon