1997
Britain flickers back again, barely, giving us 31 participants: AUT, BEL, BLR, BOS, CAN, CHN, CZE, FIN, FRA, GBR, GER, HUN, IRE, ITA, JAP, KAZ, KOR, LAT, MGL, NED, NOR, NZL, POL, POR, ROM, RSA, RUS, SWE, SWI, UKR, USA. Thus we need a preliminary round of 15 matches. The quarter-finalists from last year, KAZ, NOR, CAN, RUS, KOR, JAP, NED and USA, are seeded and cannot be drawn against each other. The draw is: IRE-ITA, NOR-BLR, KOR-HUN, NED-AUT, POL-GER, POR-CZE, BOS-FIN, KAZ-CHN, USA-UKR, JAP-ROM, SWE-RUS, SWI-GBR, MGL-BEL, RSA-NZL, LAT-CAN. The matches:
Ireland-Italy 0-11
Norway-Belarus 11-0
South Korea-Hungary 11-0
Netherlands-Austria 11-0
Poland-Germany 0-11, Poland tends to get draws like this.
Portugal-Czechia 5-5; distances: 6-10 — Portugal win!
Bosnia-Finland 0-11
Kazakhstan-China 7-4
USA-Ukraine 11-0
Japan-Romania 11-0
Sweden-Russia 0-11
Switzerland-Britain 10-0, lucky draw...
Mongolia-Belgium 0-9
South Africa-New Zealand 0-9
Latvia-Canada 0-11
Then the first round proper consists of: BEL, CAN, FIN, FRA, GER, ITA, JAP, KAZ, KOR, NED, NOR, NZL, POR, RUS, SWI, USA. The semi-finalists from last year, JAP, NOR, RUS and NED, are seeded and cannot be drawn against each other. The draw: NED-KOR, CAN-POR, ITA-USA, SWI-BEL, FRA-NZL, GER-RUS, JAP-KAZ, NOR-FIN. The matches proceed as follows:
Netherlands-South Korea 10-1
Canada-Portugal 11-0
Italy-USA 0-11
Switzerland-Belgium 6-4, first quarter-final since 1981
France-New Zealand 5-4, first quarter-final since 1983
Germany-Russia 8-3
Japan-Kazakhstan 9-2
Norway-Finland 11-0
The quarter-final consists of: CAN, FRA, GER, JAP, NED, NOR, SWI, USA. The finalists from last year, JAP and NED, are seeded and cannot be drawn against each other. The draw is as follows: NOR-GER, NED-USA, CAN-JAP, SWI-FRA. Results of the matches:
Norway-Germany 4-7
Netherlands-USA 9-2
Canada-Japan 5-6
Switzerland-France 6-4, very lucky draw, almost felt like redoing that
Semi-final draw: GER-JAP, NED-SWI. Matches:
Germany-Japan 7-4
Netherlands-Switzerland 11-0, first Swiss semi-final since 1943
Bronze final: Japan-Switzerland 11-0
FINAL: Germany-Netherlands
39,13- 39,30 (1-0) 1.18,90- 1.18,22 (1-1) 1.59,90- 2.00,27 (2-1) 4.10,40- 4.14,00 (3-1) 7.10,15- 7.07,93 (3-2) 36,50- 36,56 (4-2) 1.13,08- 1.11,72 (4-3) 1.54,10- 1.50,70 (4-4) 4.06,25- 3.53,44 (4-5) 6.43,74- 6.42,44 (4-6) 13.48,40-13.51,56 (5-6)
Final result 5-6, quite a battle
Statistics:
NOR GOLD 46x RUS GOLD 36x NED GOLD 11x FIN GOLD 4x SWE GOLD 2x GDR GOLD 2x GER GOLD 2x JAP GOLD 2x AUT Silver 5x HUN Silver 2x USA Silver 2x CZE Silver 1955 CHN Silver 1965 CAN Silver 1993 LAT bronze 1940 GBR bronze 1949 PRK bronze 1963 ITA bronze 1991 SWI 4th 4x POL 4th 3x FRA 4th 2x DEN 4th 1912 BEL 4th 1946 KOR 4th 1982 KAZ 4th 1994 EST QF 5x ROM QF 2x LIT QF 1927 AUS QF 1974 UKR 2R 2x MGL 2R 1989 BLR 2R 1995 NZL 1R 10x IRE 1R 6x POR 1R 5x YUG 1R 4x GRE 1R 2x ISV 1R 1972 ESP 1R 1989 IRN 1R 1993 ARG 1R 1994 PAN 1R 1995 BOS 1R 1995 RSA PR 6x ISR PR 5x ICE PR 2x COL PR 1933 HKG PR 1986 TPE PR 1986