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2019 World Cup Finals-Historic finish!

The 2019 World Cup Final has finished. An absolutely amazing event, with thrills and chills and a good dose of Texas Sunshine.
The international retinue of teams brought their A games on Sunday, and gave us a historic and thrilling finish.

In the Throw & Catch Championship, the teams did 4 total rounds. In the end, this wasn't quite enough to separate all the teams. We ended up with a tie for 3rd place. With 53 total points, Adam Derby and Bonnie tied with Bryan Newby & Seymour.
It was announced during the finals that in the unlikely event of a tie, we would be settling that tie with a UFO Shoot-out. One throw each, most points wins.
Unlikely was happening a lot in Texas this weekend, and Bonnie-Be-Good and Sir Seymour provided us with our first top 3 tie in the finals.
After 1 throw each, Bryan and Seymour took 3rd place.
Second went to Chuck Middleton and Chica, and the Champions for 2019, after many years of coming close, were Kirby McIlveen and Sora. With all the success that Kirby and her dogs have had it was hard to imagine that the UFO T&C World Cup Title had eluded her, but no more. Sora's amazing year continued...

In Freestyle, the best freestylers in the world were melting brains with astounding tricks. Judging was as difficult as it ever gets here. Freestyle teams had to manage dry and hot conditions and watch as their fellow competitors were on fire (despite the heat!)
At the end of the weekend, with 2 rounds of freestyle providing the score, our top 3 Freestyle teams were:
3. Chuck Middleton & Chica
2. Jeff Hill & Key
and our 2019 Champs: Kirby McIlveen & Sora!

The math is starting to become clear, right?

After 2 days of competing, it was time to hand out the Overall Championship.
In 3rd place, Texas was representing with Chuck Middleton and Chica.
In 2nd place, proving she is more than just a Small Dog Champ, Key with Jeff Hill rocked and rolled.
Finally, making history with the first EVER sweep of the 3 top UFO prizes, AND becoming the first person to ever win the UFO World Cup Championship with 2 different dogs AND becoming the first Handler to win 5 World Cup titles (and the only person to have 5 titles with the same organization),
KIRBY McILVEEN & SORA!!!

Much thanks to the AMAZING Flying Disc Dogs of Austin, who put on a stellar event. Every detail considered, every accommodation provided, it was and incredible 3 days in the Texas Hill Country and Austin in general.

Full event results are here.

The UFO would like to extend a huge thanks to our season long disc sponsor, mamadisc!
Mamadisc is Italian, and provided discs to all of our European majors. It is a bit expensive on the shipping to get them to the USA for all of our events, but Matteo donated the discs anyhow, and custom discs were on hand for the event.
Thanks very much for making the 2019 UFO World Cup Series and World Cup Final special!
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See you in Italy in 2020!!!!

- The UFO