COLORADO SPRING, Colorado, USA – The thirty teams competing in the 2023 World Lacrosse Men’s Championship are confirmed after the qualification process for the tournament wrapped this week at the Africa Association of Lacrosse qualifier in Nairobi, Kenya.
Uganda claimed the 30th and final spot by defeating Kenya on its home soil, 9-8, in a triple-overtime thriller in which the victors did not lead until the game-winning goal. Uganda will be making its third appearance in the tournament.
Eleven teams advanced through the European Lacrosse Federation qualifier in April in Wroclaw, Poland: Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and Wales. The competition featured two groups of six and two groups of five, and Denmark and Poland were the only teams to qualify seeded fourth or lower in their group. Spain and France narrowly missed qualification by just one goal in both cases.
Four teams – Jamaica, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Peru – advanced from the Pan-American Lacrosse Association qualifier in Medellín, Colombia, in a tournament of six in July. Peru and Mexico won de-facto play-in games for the world championship against the U.S. Virgin Islands and Colombia in the qualifier’s quarterfinals.
Four teams also clinched their spots in San Diego from the Asia Pacific Lacrosse Union qualifier in October: host Korea; Hong Kong, China; New Zealand and the Philippines. The Philippines and New Zealand edged out China for the final spot on the last day of the event that featured an 8-7 win for New Zealand against China.
The 20 qualifiers join the top 10 finishers from the 2018 Men’s Championship which were full members of World Lacrosse and therefore eligible for automatic qualification: the United States, Canada, Haudenosaunee, Australia, England, Japan, Israel, Germany, Scotland and Ireland.
Each team in the field has appeared at a world championship before, with four teams (Puerto Rico, Jamaica, the Philippines and Peru) making their debuts in 2018 and four teams that have participated in every edition of the championship: the United States, Canada, Australia and England.
As of December 22, 2022, Finland has withdrawn from the Men’s Championships and will be replaced by France, who was the 12th place team in the ELF qualifier. The changes are reflected below.
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