Florianópolis has two athletes called up for the Brazilian Flag Football team

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Two athletes from Florianópolis were summoned to represent Brazil in the World Flag Football Championship in December, which will take place in Israel. Those called up were Nicolas Quadro, who plays for Floripa Ghosts, and Rafael Polidoro, who lives in the capital but plays for São Paulo Buzz.

Both will travel to São Paulo in October and November for two more weekends of training with the Brazilian men’s team before the international competition. The call was broadcast live on the Brazilian American Football Confederation’s Youtube channel, announced by the men’s team’s head coach, Dan Muller.

“It’s really cool to be able to have this unique opportunity, and even more so sharing this experience with other people here in our city. Now it’s time to train to get super physically and try to fight for a position up there with the best in the world”, celebrates Rafael Polidoro, 23, a defense athlete.

In all, hundreds of athletes were analyzed by the technical committee of the men’s team through several training camps performed by Brazil, and also after analyzing the performance of athletes in the last national championships, in 2018 and 2019.

“A lot of people worked really hard to get here, and ended up being left out. So the responsibility of us, who got this place, is very big. It’s up to us to represent these people, our teammates, our family and friends who will root for us”, says Nicolas Quadro, 26, who plays in attack.

female team

This will be the first participation of the men’s team in the World Cup. The women’s team participated in 4 editions (2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018).

In the last edition, held in Panama, Florianópolis had the participation of an athlete from the Brazilian national team. Gabriela Bankhardt, Desterro Atlantis athlete, participated in training with the women’s team and has good chances of entering the final list of the 15 summoned to be released in the coming weeks. In 2018, the US women’s team was champion, and the Brazilian girls finished in 6th place.

In addition to the athletes, Bruna Ritscher should also represent Florianópolis in Israel. She was the head coach of the men’s flag team at Floripa Ghosts, and is now a member of the technical committee of the Brazilian Women’s Team as a defense assistant.

Championship

The 2021 Flag Football World Championship will feature a record 42 teams from 22 countries. The tournament is scheduled to take place in the city of Jerusalem, Israel, on the 6th, 7th and 8th of December, and will be broadcast over the internet. Here in Brazil, the coverage will be by Flag Football Brasil. The men’s and women’s teams will compete on the Kraft Family Sports Campus.

How to Play Flag Football

Flag Football 5×5 is a reduced form of American football. There are five athletes on a smaller field, 23 meters wide by 64 meters long. Attached to each player’s hip is a belt with two ribbons, one on each side, called flags.

The objective of the sport is to conquer territory by running or passing the ball and reaching the end zone of the field, scoring 6 points. At the end of the two-half 20 minutes, whoever scores the most points wins the match.