| A German Victory |
| Italy didn’t finish any higher than fifth place with Rudi Giroldini. The finalists in the men’s category were all German: with Marco Templin beating fellow countryman Marco Blazer. As for the women, only Austrian Elisabeth Gruber was able to beat German Bianca Oberweg |
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(08/27/07)
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The German team that arrived in Canegrate for the 10th edition of the World Championships was in absolute tip-top shape. After having taken the gold for the team categories (both men and women), they also placed in the individual competitions. The new world champion in the men’s category is the German Marco Templin after a very close battle with fellow countryman Marco Blazer. As for the women, the Austrian Elisabeth Gruber was able to come out on top during a final game against the German Bianca Oberweg (Germany).
The Minigolf World Championships, having been held in Italy for the first time in history, has above all been a championships revolving around Germany. «We knew that they would come to us
very determined to win –says Giuliano Banfi, president of the Italian Minigolf Federation-, but that they would have won everything, no we didn’t see that coming». The best of the Italians, Rudy Giroldini, placed fifth after having lost against the now champion Marco Templin in the semi-finals. In the end the Italians managed to finish in fourth place for the men and sixth place for the women. «Of course we are very disappointed –comments Banfi-, we were prepared and have what it takes to play top-notch minigolf. It was a bitter disappointment, but now what counts is to prepare ourselves for the next world championships in Denmark and closely analyze which methods did not work for us in this edition of
the world championships and change those for the next».
The third and fourth place positions in the male category were also battled for among countrymen. The Austrians Cristian Freilach and Manfred Lindmayr gave it all they had against the Germans, but in the end their “neighbours” took the first two positions, leaving them the third and fourth positions, the bronze medal going to Freilach.
For the women, in the final for third place, the medal went to another German, Nicole Gunder-Greiffendar, who beat Trystje Schakel from Holland. Sara Marchiani, the only Italian women qualified for this final phase of the individual competition, was eventually eliminated by the Swedish Karin Wiklund.
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