Friday's success (bronze medals in Petanque and Climbing as well as a football team qualified for the quarter finals) continued Saturday. The Tug-of-War team started out by going undefeated through to the finals, where it beat Cambridge comfortably. The team's strategy - which was based partly on good advice from last year's Tug-of-War captain Bryan Hassin - was very effective. Actually the team won all of its matches in less than 15 seconds!
Juan Benitez [Colombia] added to the number of medals by bringing home a gold and a silver in swimming.
The other schools and their coaches have student bodies up to ten times the size of IMD's to choose from and students that on average are 5-7 years younger, so the statistics are therefore not on IMD's side. The IMD football team had thus already won more than it had hoped to win by qualifying to the quarter finals, but there was much more to come.
We were set to meet the Italian school Bocconi - one of the favorites to win the tournament - so we didn't set our hopes very high. As the game started we managed to keep them at a distance and play some opportunistic football by kicking long passes forward. It wasn't pretty, but it worked. When the referee blew the final vistle, the score was 1-1, and that was even after an IMD goal was disallowed in the last minute because of an alledged IMD 'handball' that apparently only the referee and the Italian goal keeper saw. We won the penalty shootout mainly due to fabulous goalkeeping by Stefano Giussani [Italy] and to our surprise we found ourselves in the semi finals.
In the semi finals we met HEC, who we already had drawn against in the group play. History repeated itself so after a draw, a penalty shootout and more magic from Stefano in the goal we found ourselves in the final. Not bad for a bunch of 'old boys' that just play football for fun on Sunday mornings in Pard de Milan. It reminds me of 1992, when Denmark won the European Championship in football. Noone in his right mind bets on David when he fights Goliath, but once in a blue moon things do not turn out as they 'should'.
The Spanish armada from IESE were waiting in the final. There was not much we could do there and they won comfortably. The funny things was, though, that by the time IESE was done celebrating their victory and everybody had left the place we were still celebrating our silver ecstaticly. There was no end to the joy. It reminds me of the Women's 400m relay in Barcelona in 1992. If you don't know the story then take a look this video.
The supporters following the teams were absolutely amazing. Judging from the amount of noice created by the supporters IMD was by far the largest school out there. During the party Saturday evening IMD was further awarded the price of the 'School with the most spirited team'. Perhaps this video of the Tug-of-War final explains why.
It was hilarious to see people walking around very slowly on very stiff and sore legs today. The spirits were high, though, as it was the good kind of pain. The kind where you know that it has been worth it. The kind that leaves you with a sense of achievement. And above all, it actually feels great to - for once - be exhausted from good old fashioned physical activity.
From left: Jodie Roussell [American], Joe Nai [The Netherlands/Hong Kong] and Misayo Matsumoto [Japan] showing the IMD MBAT uniform.
Minli Zhao [German] in perfect style.
Men's double with Ajay Lakhwani and Shibu James [both from India].
Two of the three members of bronze winning Petanque team: Liesbeth Bakker [The Netherlands] and Christian Cuenot [France]. The third members of the team was Richard Dove [UK].
The Ultimate Frisbee team is ready to go!
The supporters were fantastic!
Here it is Sebastian Guery [France].
Suchir Swarup [Canada/India] in deep thought.
The foosball team from left: Nicholas Denef [Belgium], Alberto Mussi [Italy], Suchir Swarup [India], David Rohan [Australia], Andres Akamine [Peru], Naoto Tsushima [Japan], Gerald Lo [Malaysia/China].
The Tug-of-War team in action. Notice how the supporters are working just as hard as the team.
Tug-of-War Gold!
Kneeling left: Cathinka Sheie [Norway], Anita Yehudai [Germany], Christine [U.S].
Standing left: Chuks Onunkwo [Nigeria], Fadi Sbaiti [Lebanon/US], Gerrit Sindermann [Germany], Yury Vasilkov [Russia], Thorsten Boeck [Denmark].
The fundamental part of what competition soon named 'The Rugby Defense'. Paul De Hek [The Netherlands] and Chris Eaborn [UK].
Stefano Giusanni [Italy], now better known as 'The penalty killer' across major European business schools.
The football silver medals are reality! Who would ever have thought this?
And in between all the sports there was actually time to have a look at Paris. It is an amazing city on a springday when the sun in shining.
You can find many more MBAT pictures here and here
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment