Men’s World Championship

The initial World Championship was a four-team invitational tournament that coincided with Canada’s centennial lacrosse celebration in 1967. The Mt. Washington (Md.) Lacrosse Club represented the United States and won the tournament. Seven years later, Australia celebrated its lacrosse centennial, and the U.S. fielded an all-star team to compete in a similar international invitational tournament with Canada and England again. It was here that the concept of holding a world championship tournament every four years was born and the International Lacrosse Federation (ILF) formed.

In 2008 the ILF merged with the International Federation of Women’s Lacrosse Associations (IFWLA) to form the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL)—the present governing body for both men’s and women’s world championship lacrosse.

The U.S. captured its tenth World Lacrosse Championship at the 2018 FIL Men’s World Championship hosted in Netanya, Israel, beating Canada in the last seconds of the game, 9-8. Canada has captured three championships throughout the history of the event with it’s most recent championship coming in a stunning 8-5 upset of the US at the 2014 World Lacrosse Championship in Denver, Colorado.

US will defend it’s championship at the 2022 World Lacrosse Men’s World Championship at a TBA location, July 2022.

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Men’s U19 World Championship

A record-high 14 teams competed in the FIL U19 Men’s Lacrosse World Championship in Coquitlam, B.C., Canada from July 7th through July 16th, 2016.

The Blue Division teams, comprised of the top five finishers from the 2012 U19 Men’s Worlds, included Canada, the United States, the Iroquois Nationals, Australia and England. Red Division teams were made up of Israel, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany and Mexico, and the Green Division included entries from China, Ireland, Scotland and Korea. The 2016 world tournament saw debuts at the U19 level for six of the teams: Israel, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mexico, China and Ireland.

The USA came back from a 6-0 deficit to defeat Canada 13-12 on Saturday, July 16th in front of a standing-room only crowd.

Ryan Conrad scored with eight seconds remaining coming off a screen and burying the ball, capping off an unbelievable comeback for the Americans who trailed 8-2 at the half, giving the Americans their eighth title on the U-19 world stage.

The USA is the only country to have won the gold medal in FIL’s U19 Men’s event, winning in 1988, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2008, 2012 and 2016.

The next U19 World Championship will take place 9th – 18th July, 2020 in Limerick, Ireland (http://www.2020worldlax.com/).

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Images courtesy © 2016 Vancouver Sports Pictures / Paul Yates / © FIL and CLA

A summary of these changes is as follows, with more detail provided in the attached documents below under “Alternative measurements for existing MENS’s facilities.”

Men

• Size of field increased from 110 yard X 60 yard to 110 m X 60 m (120.30 yard X 65.62 yard)
• Goal crease radius increased from 3 yard to 3 m (3.28 yard)
• Space behind the goal reduced from 15 yard to 12 m (13.12 yard)
• Substitution area or gate increased from 10 yard to 13 m (14.22 yard)
• Centre face-off X to wing line and goal line to men’s restraining line remain essentially the same but the measurement has been adjusted to metric.
• Additional field length is added to the centre of the field between the 2 restraining lines and the additional width is added between the wing lines and the sidelines.

World Lacrosse has developed a set of measurements for existing MEN’S fields. These are for the following size pitches: