On July 10th, 2011 Doug Sayers was named the 2011 Overall Champion. The Overall Championship comprises 22 events. They are:

Advanced Balls Short Program
Advanced Rings Short Program
Advanced Clubs Short Program

Isolated 7 Ball Endurance
Isolated 7 Ring Endurance
Isolated 7 Club Endurance
Isolated 5 Club Backcross Endurance

9 Ball Endurance
8 Ring Endurance
7 Club Endurance

3 Club 360s
5 Club 360s

3 Club Freestyle
5 Club Freestyle
6 Club Freestyle
7 Club Freestyle

5 Ring Freestyle
6 Ring Freestyle
7 Ring Freestyle

5 Ball Freestyle
6 Ball Freestyle
7 Ball Freestyle

The total accumulated score determines the Overall Champion. The Advanced Short Programs for Balls, Rings and Clubs have the potential to score up to 10 points each. All the other events score 1 point for 1st Place, 0.5 points for 2nd place and 0.25 points for 3rd place.

After the conclusion of our telecast on ESPN3, the head judge was tasked with adding up the numbers to determine the final scores in the Overall Championship. The scores he submitted placed Lauge Benjaminsen in third place, Vova Galchenko in second place, and Doug Sayers in first place. The point differential between first and second place was 7.8 points. This didn't seem right to Vova so later that night he added up the numbers and discovered a tragic error. Vova's entire score for the Advanced Balls Short Program had not been included. This happened because the head judge had only listed the top three scores on the Overall Championship board. The Advanced Balls Short Program first through fourth place scores were all very close, and Vova had scored an 8.1.

Sadly, I had to inform Doug of this error hours after he had been proclaimed the 2011 Overall Champion.

The final correct scores which have been validated and approved by both Doug Sayers and Vova Galchenko are as follows:

Vova: 34.45
Doug: 32.65

I apologize for the error our head judge made and will use this experience to have more checks in place before we announce the 2012 Overall Champion. Decision reversals are not pleasant, however my interest is in awarding the championship to the competitor who earns and deserves it.

The scores were close, and I expect a heated rematch in 2012.

Jason Garfield
World Juggling Federation
President

7 Club Incentive Program

This year Jack Denger won the 7 Club Incentive Program Award. He is the first person in history under 15 years old to demonstrate 50 catches of  7 Clubs in a competition. Jack got a run of 61 catches and then another run of 52 catches to a collect all under the 30-minute time limit in his first session. The World Juggling Federation congratulates Jack for making history at such a young age and looks forward to seeing Jack in competition at WJF 8. Jack will still be eligible to enter the 7 Club Incentive Program next year, and we hope Jack will be able to beat his run of 62 catches with over 100 catches and set another world record. Video coming soon!