For the third time in four years, a player has swept the Open Pairs and Open Co-op titles at the FPA World Championships. In 2013 it was Arthur Coddington. Paul Kenny did it last year. Christian Lamred has won his first and second world championship titles in winning both the pairs and co-op events at this year’s Brooklyn, New York world championships.
Unpredictable winds and the threat of rain moved the worlds finals indoors this year, resulting in a high level of play on finals day.
The Champions
Women’s: Lori Daniels/Amy Schiller Open Co-op: Flo Hess/Christian Lamred/Alex Leist Mixed Pairs: Lisa Hunrichs/Matt Gauthier Open Pairs: Christian Lamred/Tom Leitner
New All-Time Bests
This year’s world championships resulted in a number of new all-time bests and set other records up to be broken at next year’s championships in Italy.
Flo Hess, Christian Lamred and Alex Leist become first-time world champions.
Veteran and legend Tom Leitner shatters the record for the most time between first FPA world championship titles and most recent. His first was in 1989. The record increases from Larry Imperiale’s previous best of 22 years to a new mark of 27 years!
Tom Leitner picks up his sixth Open Pairs title. He is only the second player to win six, behind Arthur Coddington who has seven. He has now won with 4 different teammates (Skippy Jammer, Dave Schiller, Matteo Gaddoni and Christian Lamred), which establishes a new record.
Lisa Hunrichs and Matt Gauthier win their fourth consecutive mixed pairs title, tying Amy Schiller and Dave Schiller’s all-time record for consecutive mixed titles. This title is their sixth mixed pairs together, one behind the Schillers’ all-time record.
Lisa Hunrichs extends her lead as the winningest player in the Mixed and Women’s divisions with 19 titles (11 women’s and 8 mixed)
People stop and watch freestyle jams all the time. Some whip out their smart phones or video cameras and film the action. Only rarely does video footage surface. Here’s one featuring Roger Meier and Doug Simon from a winter bandshell jam in NY’s Central Park.
What other “civilian” video clips of freestyle have you found?
1996 FPA World Championships
New York, NY
September 6-8, 2004
The Champions:
Open Pairs: Arthur Coddington/Dave Lewis Open Co-op: Larry Imperiale/Randy Silvey/Bill Wright Mixed Pairs: Amy Bekken/Dave Schiller Women’s Pairs: Amy Bekken/Judy Robbins