2018 IFAF World Junior Championship schedule released

AFI | 2018 IFAF World Junior Championships | 06/03/2018

Graphic: Igor Lazarevic

The 2018 IFAF World Junior Championships are set to kick off at Olympic Stadium in Mexico City on July 14.

This is the fifth time the World U19 tournament has been held since 2009, its inaugural year. The United States has won it twice and Canada twice including in 2016. Japan has won the bronze medal two times as has Mexico.

The six team tournament, organized by International Federation of American Football, will get underway with three games on the opening day of the compeition. The six participating countries include the defending champions, Team Canada as well as silver medalists, Team USA, bronze medal winners, Team Mexico, Japan, Sweden and Australia.

The 2016 gold medalists, Team Canada will open their tournament against Sweden. Canada won the 2016 World Championships that were held in Harbin, China, beating Team USA in the final, 24-6.

The United States will open the tournament by facing Australia. Mexico, who defeated Japan 24-7 to win the bronze in 2016, will ironically play Japan as their opening day opponent.

Day 2 of the tournament will see Australia play Sweden and then Canada face the loser of the Mexico-Japan game. The United States will take on the winner of that game.

The medal round games take place on July 22.

Canada’s National Junior Team Head Coach Steve Sumarah traveled to Mexico City and was in awe of the atmosphere just weeks before the start of the tournament:

“Being in Mexico City was an incredible experience,” he reflected. The energy and excitement that the people of Mexico City have for this tournament is second to none. The energy and history that you felt when you walked into Olympic Stadium, knowing that there is going to be 20,000 people there to watch, it just led to the fact that once again the growth of football in the world is amazing. Other countries like Australia, Sweden and Japan being there just made this a real understanding of how big this tournament is going to be.”

From his personal experience, Sumarah was overwhelmed with all the positives that the host city demonstrated to him and the other visitors.

“From my standpoint, I was more than impressed with the facilities, with the practice facility, with the hotels and just the way people treated us. This will be a second to none experience. We’re looking forward to July 9th for sure.”