As the Canadian National Team is joining the 16th Memorial of Hubert Jerzy Wagner again, the group of this year’s participants would be exactly the same as last year – something that has never happened before in the history of this tournament.
After the experience of last year’s edition of the Memorial its organizers assure that all participants will provide the highest world level. And because of that the tournament would be the perfect taste of the World Championships that would come right after that.
And that is why there were chosen exactly the same teams – it is going to be a big revenge for the 15th edition of the Memorial where the team of Poland triumphed over France, Russia and Canada.
And it is for the second time in the history of the tournament that all four participants are from the very top ten of the FIVB ranking (Poland – 3rd place, Russia – 4th, Canada – 6th, France – 9th).
The Canadian National Team – led by Stephane Antiga – is a dark horse of the last season’s games. Also the last edition of the World League resulted very sensational as the team won a bronze medal.
The “Maple Leaf team” has a lot of sympathizers in Poland as there are many Canadians playing in the PlusLiga: Sharone Vernon-Evans (ONICO Warszawa), Justin Duff (Espadon Szczecin), Blake Scheerhoorn (Indykpol AZS Olsztyn), Jason De Rocco (Jastrzębski Węgiel), Tyler Sanders and Bradley Gunter (Trefl Gdańsk). We have also a Canadian coach in Poland – it’s Stelio DeRocco, training the MKS Będzin team.
The Candian’s National Team coach – Stephane Antiga – will probably like to provide us again some sensation at this year’s World Championships. Last time he won a gold medal with Polish team and now he surely dreams to repeat the success with Canadians. He is also highly known in our country because of his great work as a coach of the ONICO Warszawa team in this season of PlusLiga.
It would be the third time for Canadians to take part in the Memorial of Hubert Jerzy Wagner. Besides last year’s tournament, they also took part in its 4th edition (in 2006) when it took place in Olsztyn, Iława and Ostróda. At that time they took the 3rd place.
