11th WMC Golf – China Bay (SRI) – Update – Competition Day 3 & 4
GOLD MEDALS FOR FOR LAUSSOT (FRA) AND DE LEON (USA)!
CHINA BAY (SRI) – The 11th WMC Golf was held in the Eagles’ Golf Links in China Bay (Sri Lanka) on a period 4 days period with an Individual Open Event, a Seniors’ Event and a Team Event
The bid to host this tournament in Sri Lanka was initiated in 2014 and was pursued under the leadership of the present Commander of the Air Force who was the Chairman of SLAF Golf at the time.
OR3 Aymeric Laussot (FRA), ranked second at the end of the day 2, took the opportunity of the third round to take the provisional lead ahead of his teammate OR1 Nicolas Calvel (FRA) and OR Nickjulius Bachem (GER). Despite an excellent performance from the German Bachem (76) in the last round, Laussot managed to keep the lead and became the new golf military world champion with 308 strokes. Congratulations to the young Laussot for this impressive performance! Bachem and Calvel respectively grabbed silver and bronze.
The US male team who was ranked first of the team competition during the whole tournament won a deserved gold medal with a total of 1250 points, 24 strokes ahead of France (Calvel, Laussot, Lefay, Norman, Rond and Alba) while Germany (Bachem, Starcevix, Weihe, Kock, Vahlenkamp and Obieglo) finally finished on the third step of the podium.
In the women’s individual competition, the Sergeant Malanie de Leon achieved an incredible performance as she did the best score in three out of the four rounds of the female competition. There in indeed no surprise to hear that she is the new military world champion with a scoreboard of 318 strokes. The silver medalist Annyssia Herbaut (326) did her best but could not compete against de Leon who was clearly unstoppable this year. Another US athlete, Lieutenant Lauel Gill, completes the podium.
Given the female individual results, the US female team victory was easily predictable. The members of the US team, De Leon, Gill and Jeffery, won the female team competition with a 45 strokes lead ahead of France (Herbaut, Golf and Riguidel) and thanks to their performance during the last round, the Netherlands (Van Zeldam, Vander Deij and Van Wijngaarden - 740) overtook Canada (752) to bring the bronze medal back to Amsterdam.
Finally, WO Naser Mubaak (BRN) took the first place of the senior competition with 319 strokes followed by the silver medalist MCPL Stirling Swansburg from Canada (327) and the bronze medalist Or 5. Jose Benito Cortes Ledesha (ESP - 328)
The 11th World Military Golf Championship 2017, which was conducted in Sri Lanka for the first time, was concluded with a colorful closing ceremony at Eagle’s Golf Links China Bay on 17 November 2017.
The awards were given away during a gala awards night held at the ‘Bay View’ Restaurant of the Eagles’ Golf Links during the same evening.
The Chief of Defense Staff Admiral RC Wijegunaratne graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. The Commander of the Air Force, Air Marshal KVB Jayampathy, the Commander of the Navy Vice Admiral SS Ranasinghe, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force Air Vice Marshal DLS Dias, Director Air Operations of SLAF and Chairman SLAF Golf Air Vice Marshal SK Pathirana, the Secretary General of the International Military Sports Council Colonel Dorah Mamby Koita and OCR of the event, the Navy CISM Golf PCSC Captain Ansar Mahmood and members of the Air Force Board of Management and many senior officers from the Tri-Forces were there to witness the conclusion of this event.
Thank you Sri Lanka and see you next year in Warendorf, Germany, for the 13th WMC Golf that will take place from August 26 to September 2!
FINAL RESULTS
Individual Male – Team Male – Individual Female – Team Female - Seniors
All the pictures are available on the CISM Flickr Account.
(Source: CISM Media and Communication Department)
(Pictures: WO Dominique Einsweiler)
