22 Dec 2020 at 19:30 | Published by: PatPenguin | Views: 22057 | News search

United Through Sport Virtual Youth Festival  (Photo by )

With the global pandemic impacting nearly every aspect of life, including cancelling all international miniature golf competitions this year, finding ways of being “united” has been a theme for many during these times. With that in mind, the United Through Sports (UTS) organization partnered with many international sport organizations including the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as well as AIMS and GAISF, of which the World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF) is a member, to bring together the first UTS World Virtual Youth Festival (VYF).

The VYF kicked off in August and wound its way towards a set of finals late in November. There were five categories available for youth, and in each of them the idea was to present something done virtually which would be judged against others. The VYF was designed to be inclusive in this way, trying to get competition from all background and abilities. This would all culminate in medal ceremonies in December, along with various discussions and workshops.

For the minigolf community, many of whom have been practicing their trick shot skills at home since early in the year under various #Puttathome social media challenges, the “talent” category was where they could showcase their skills. The hard work by the minigolf youth paid off as a gold, a solver and 2 bronze medals, along with 2 medals for effort, were earned by miniature golf trick shots across the various age divisions. The medals earned were as follows:

U10 - SILVER 🥈 Arashk Rostampour, IRI
U12 - BRONZE 🥉 Cameron Fincher, GBR
U14 - EFFORT 🏅 Nastaran Abdolalipoor, IRI
U16 - GOLD 🥇 Belin Erasoglu, SUI
U18 - EFFORT 🏅 Janik Zysset, SUI
18+ - BRONZE 🥉 Emils Simanskis, LAT

The awards gala can be viewed in its entirety here.

Stay tuned to the WMF social channels including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to view the winning trick shot videos as well as read interviews from the winners.

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