Canada makes its debut in floorball

Team Canada took the silver at the Division C World Floorball Championship Games, losing to Japan in the finals.

This was Canada's first ever entry to the world championships. This year, the games were held in Madrid, Spain, on April 21-25. One of the key players in Team Canada was Lauri Hannelius of Tampere.

Lauri's summary of the games

Yes, I was there at the Floorball World Championships in Leganes, Madrid. Canada participated for the very first time in the world championships. We played in Division C, and the winner will play in Division B next time.

There were six other teams: Japan, Spain, the Czech Republic, France, Belgium and Malaysia. We finished second in the tournament, and that was a very good achievement for us, considering how inexperienced our team was.

We had eight players from Edmonton, as well as Canadians who live in Europe, including seven players from Switzerland, one from Sweden and myself from Finland. Although there were players from different places and we all didn't know each other, we managed to muster up a very good team spirit—that was one of the keys to our success.

It was a great honour to play for Canada and meet those other players from Canada and Europe. We had a great time, and I think many of us learned more about the sport. We had some experienced players on the team, and we were able to help the other guys; we also took a little bit more responsibility on the field.

How did I end up playing with Team Canada?

Well, one day I was looking for information about floorball in Canada, and I found out that Canada was participating in the world championships this year. I contacted the team manager, we came to an agreement, and they gladly selected me for the team because I was so experienced.

(Editor's note: Lauri and other European players who play for Team Canada have Canadian citizenship, thus qualifying them for the national team.)

The future of Team Canada looks good. We had such great success this time around-and it was our first time! The next Division C World Championships will be held in Sweden in 2006. So we have two years to practise, and I'm sure that we will have a good and much more experienced team in 2006.

All the players, especially the guys in Canada, will develop a lot in these two years, and I think we will have a good chance to win the tournament and therefore rise to Division B.

By Harry and Lauri Hannelius