Women running women
Referees in Europe
Just recently the FIRA-AER Women's European Championship ended in Northern Italy. For the first time ever all the referees were women.
The competition is condensed. The six teams are divided into two pools of three teams each and from the pools they go to two knock-out rounds. In all there are 12 matches.
There were six referees – all women – and they refereed two matches each.
The referees were Christine Hanizeit (France), Federica Guerzoni (Italy), Sabine Darrieux (France), Veronique Dullier (France), Paloma Lopez Perez (Spain), and Kerstin Ljungdahl (Germany).
Paloma Lopez has recently refereed at the top level of Spain's men's competition. Kerstin Ljungdahl is a former Swedish international.
Italy won the tournament for the first time.
Results
Round 1
Pool 1
Italy vs Belgium, 34-0
Russia vs Belgium, 24-0
Italy vs Russia, 30-0
Pool 2
Netherlands vs Norway, 84-0
Sweden vs Norway, 34-0
Netherlands vs Sweden, 10-5
Semi-finals
Netherlands vs Russia, 53-5
Italy vs Sweden, 33-0
Belgium vs Norway, 41-0
Finals
1st/2nd: Italy vs Netherlands, 28-7
3rd/4th: Sweden vs Belgium, 31-0
5/6th: Russia vs Norway, 62-5
