Local

By Chuck Martin
For Outsports.com

PALO ALTO-- It was a record-setting day in more ways than one, and it was hard to tell what was hotter: the weather or the hundreds of men and women splashing their way to championships and some of those records in the final day of the 2003 International Gay & Lesbian Aquatics (IGLA) Championships.

One record was, literally, the heat. Many areas around the San Francisco Bay Area hit triple-digit temperature records for Aug. 24, and one official mark for the Stanford area where the meet was held recorded a sweltering 93 degrees. But the air shimmering above the concrete decks surrounding the five pools (two swimming, one diving, two water polo) probably got much hotter.

Other records fell too. 17 world records, meet officials announced at the end of the meet. Numerous IGLA records too, the totals not yet tallied.

In the team swimming competition, the District of Columbia Athletic Club (DCAC) took first place in the Large Teams (37+ swimmers) with 1,780 points, 499 ahead of 2nd place West Hollywood Aquatics. Host San Francisco Tunami finished 4th with 868 points.

Queer Utah Athletic Club (QUAC) won the Medium Team (12-35 swimmers) competition, edging out Atlanta Rainbow Trout by 2 points. Team Fuego of Berkeley won the Small Teams title, edging Team Dallas Aquatics by 20 points.

Complete results of all events ate at the IGLA site.

On the third day, the swimming tends to get overshadowed by water polo, as the teams get whittled down to two each, men's and women's, going head-to-head in mid-afternoon for the gold. With much of the swimming over, the finals are played out in front of the biggest crowds of the weekend.

Seattle and Oakland represented the best of the women's teams, and they put on a touch act to follow. Seattle jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first quarter, suggesting that a blowout was in order. Oakland put up a 3-spot in the second quarter to cut the lead to 5-3.

Seattle came out strong in the third quarter, taking a 7-4 lead going into the last five minutes. Those last five minutes were Oakland's shining hour, as they shut out Seattle and scored their third goal of the quarter with 13 seconds left to send the game into overtime.

As in many sports, defense dominated overtime, here two three-minute periods. Seattle scored once in each, while Oakland could manage only one tally, with a final shot bouncing off the left post with one second to go, giving Seattle the 2003 women's gold.

After dominating the round robin competition, it may have been a foregone conclusion that the West Hollywood A team would successfully defend their Gay Games gold. They knocked off the other top seed, West Hollywood B, early in bracket play and ended up facing San Francisco's A team in the final in front of a highly partisan crowd.

In what turned out to be a low-scoring affair, it was San Francisco that drew first blood, scoring a single goal in each of the first two periods. West Hollywood tallied late in the second period with just 1:09 left to cut the SF lead to 2-1 at the half.

West Hollywood changed its strategy in the third quarter, leaving one swimmer in the offensive end, resulting in 2 breakaway goals in the first 2:15 of the 3rd quarter. They held SF to just one goal the rest of the way and added 2 more goals to take a hard-fought 5-3 win and the championship.

Following the water polo and traditionally ending the IGLA meet was the Pink Flamingo. Seven teams entered the Wild Wild West-themed event, which turned a bit political to the cheers of the international crowd. One team celebrated the recent U.S. Supreme Court's decision outlawing Texas' anti-sodomy laws, while another took an anti-war, big gun-bigger gun theme to outrageous heights.

Queer Utah Athletic Club--QUAC--won the event's Newbie Award, with Paris Aquatique winning Best Costumes, the District of Columbia Athletic Club (DCAC) winning Best Choreography, and Colorado winning Best Use of Theme. Winning the coveted Pink Flamingo First Place: Paris Aquatique.

Related: Day One Report and Photos

Photo Gallery: Images of IGLA

All photos by Chuck Martin (Click on photo for larger image)

Sydney (white) scores against San Diego (Blue) in water polo.	Idria Roberts and Andrea Timpeiro of Atlanta Rainbow Trout relax in the shade.	Martin Smit of Upstream Amsterdam and Stan Young of the District of Columbia Athletic Club chat by the side of the pool.
			The Paris Aquatique synchronized swimming team.
			Next four images: Women's water polo finals, Seattle (blue) vs. Oakland (white).
		Next three photos: Men's water polo finals, West Hollywood A (blue) vs. San Francisco A (white).
Pink Flamingo		Pink Flamingo winner: Paris Aquatique

Aug.28, 2003