The World Lacrosse Box Championships (WLBC), formerly known as the World Indoor Lacrosse Championship (WILC), is an international box lacrosse tournament sponsored by World Lacrosse that is held every four years. Since the first tournament in 2003, Canada has won all five gold medals and is undefeated in all games. Canada hosted the first two tournaments in 2003 and 2007, the Czech Republic hosted in 2011, the Onondaga Nation, south of Syracuse, New York, hosted in 2015. The 2019 WILC was held in Langley, British Columbia, Canada.
The Nations in 1980
Box Lacrosse was invented in Canada in 1931, and it took a while for the indoor variant to take off outside of its home country. In the 1970s, it had begun to gain popularity in both Australia, due to a myth about its origin down under, and the United States, due to the short-lived NLA, and the idea of an international box tournament began to be spoken about. Tom Davies, the president of the British Columbia Lacrosse Association, was the first to raise the idea in 1974. In 1976, the Commonwealth Games accepted the bid for box lacrosse as a demonstration sport, and it featured in the 1978 Edmonton Games.
In 1980, the BCLA announced, with the backing of the International Lacrosse Federation, that a Nations Cup would be held in July 1980 in Vancouver. This tournament would include 5 teams, national teams from Australia and the US, a First Nations representative team, and two Canadian teams. The Canadian teams would be Canada West, represented by the WLA's Coquitlam Adanacs, and Canada East, represented by Ontario's Brooklin Redmen. Canada West were the round robin champions, having won all 4 games, and advanced to the final. Canada East and the Natives faced each other in the semi-final, and the Natives pulled off the upset, beating Brooklin 13-9. In front of 8,000 fans in the Pacific Coliseum, the Adanacs beat the Natives 16-11 in the final, and were crowned world champion.
The tournament was deemed a success, but the struggles of the American and Australian teams convinced many that non-Canadian teams were not quite ready to compete at the top level. The Nations Cup was never repeated, and another attempt at a Box world championship would not be made until 2003.
Men
Champions
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|- bgcolor="#efefef" align=left
!Year
!Host sites
!Host country
! Champions
! Final score
! Runner-up
! Third place
|-
|2003
|Ontario
|Canada
|data-sort-value="Canada 1"|
|align=center|21–4
|
|
|-
|2007
|Halifax
|Canada
|data-sort-value="Canada 2"|
|align=center|15–14 (OT)
|
|
|-
|2011
|Prague
|Czech Republic
|data-sort-value="Canada 3"|
|align=center|13–6
|
|
|-
|2015
|Onondaga Reservation, Syracuse
|Iroquois Confederacy
|data-sort-value="Canada 4"|
|align=center|12–8
|
|
|-
|2019
|Langley
|Canada
|
|align=center|19–12
|
|
|-
|2024
|Utica
|United States
|
|align=center|13–7
|
| Haudenosaunee
|}
Source:
Medal table
Performance by team
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
!align=left|Team
!2003<br><br>(6)
!2007<br><br>(8)
!2011<br><br>(8)
!2015<br><br>(13)
!2019<br><br>(20)
!2024<br><br>(28)
|-
|align=left| || 5th || 6th || 6th || 8th || 9th || 11th
|-
|align=left| || || || || || 14th || 19th
|-
|align=left| || || || || || || 27th
|-
|align=left| || bgcolor=gold|1st || bgcolor=gold|1st || bgcolor=gold|1st || bgcolor=gold|1st || bgcolor=gold|1st || bgcolor=gold|1st
|-
|align=left| || || || || || || 15th
|-
|align=left| || || || || || 20th ||
|-
|align=left| || 6th || 7th || 4th || 7th || 7th || 6th
|-
|align=left| || || 4th || 5th || 5th || 4th || 4th
|-
|align=left| || || || || 9th || 6th || 9th
|-
|align=left| || || || || 11th || 10th || 10th
|-
|align=left| || || || || || || 23rd
|-
| align="left" | || || || || || 18th || 21st
|-
| align="left" ||| || || || || || 28th
|-
| align="left" | || || 8th || 7th || 6th || 11th || 7th
|-
| align="left" | Haudenosaunee || bgcolor="silver" |2nd || bgcolor="silver" |2nd || bgcolor="silver" |2nd || bgcolor="silver" |2nd || bgcolor="silver" |2nd || bgcolor="cc9966" |3rd
|-
| align="left" | || || || || 4th || 5th || 5th
|-
|align=left| || || || || || || 13th
|-
| align="left" | || || || || || || 22nd
|-
| align="left" | || || || || || || 8th
|-
| align="left" | || || || || || 19th || 26th
|-
| align="left" | || || || || || 8th || 12th
|-
| align="left" | || || || || || || 17th
|-
| align="left" | || || || || || || 25th
|-
| align="left" | || 4th || 5th || || || 16th || 18th
|-
| align="left" | || || || || 12th || 12th
|
|-
| align="left" | || || || 8th || || 13th || 16th
|-
| align="left" | || || || || || 15th
|
|-
| align="left" | || || || || 13th || 17th || 24th
|-
| align="left" | || || || || || || 20th
|-
| align="left" | || || || || 10th ||
|
|-
| align="left" | || bgcolor="cc9966" |3rd || bgcolor="cc9966" |3rd || bgcolor="cc9966" |3rd|| bgcolor="cc9966" |3rd || bgcolor="cc9966" |3rd ||bgcolor="silver" |2nd
|-
| align="left" | || || || || || || 14th
|}
Women
Champions
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|- bgcolor="#efefef" align=left
!Year
!Host sites
!Host country
! Champions
! Final score
! Runner-up
! Third place
|-
|2024
|Utica
|United States
| United States
|align=center| 10–7
|
| Haudenosaunee
|}
Medal table
Performance by team
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
!align=left|Team
!2024<br><br>(10)
|-
|align=left| || 4th
|-
|align=left| || bgcolor="silver" |2nd
|-
|align=left| || 5th
|-
|align=left| || 10th
|-
|align=left| || 6th
|-
|align=left| || bgcolor="cc9966" |3rd
|-
|align=left| || 9th
|-
|align=left| || 8th
|-
|align=left| || 7th
|-
|align=left| United States || bgcolor=gold|1st
|}
Performance by tournament
2003 Indoor Championship
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! A !! GP !! width=20|W !! width=20|L !! GF !! GA !! PTS
|-
|align="left"|
|5||5||0||109||29||10
|-
|align="left"|
|5||4||1||100||52||8
|-
|align="left"|
|5||3||2||63||69||6
|-
|align="left"|
|5||2||3||75||65||4
|-
|align="left"|
|5||1||4||39||102||2
|-
|align="left"|
|5||0||5||29||98||0
|}
Final: Canada 21, Iroquois 4<br>
3rd place: United States 15, Scotland 9<br>
5th place: Australia 21, Czech Republic 10
2007 Indoor Championship
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! A !! GP !! width=20|W !! width=20|L !! GF !! GA !! PTS
|-
|align="left"|
|3||3||0||67||10||6
|-
|align="left"|
|3||2||1||44||27||4
|-
|align="left"|
|3||1||2||27||51||2
|-
|align="left"|
|3||0||3||9||59||0
|-
! B !! GP !! W !! L !! GF !! GA !! PTS
|-
|align="left"|
|3||3||0||70||16||6
|-
|align="left"|
|3||2||1||32||41||4
|-
|align="left"|
|3||1||2||22||43||2
|-
|align="left"|
|3||0||3||20||44||0
|}
Final: Canada 15, Iroquois 14, OT<br>
3rd place: United States 17, England 10<br>
5th place: Scotland 14, Australia 8<br>
7th place: Czech Republic 22, Ireland 5
2011 Indoor Championship
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! A !! GP !! width=20|W !! width=20|L !! GF !! GA !! PTS
|-
|align="left"|
|3||3||0||81||8||3
|-
|align="left"|
|3||2||1||49||43||2
|-
|align="left"|
|3||1||2||22||53||1
|-
|align="left"|
|3||0||3||15||63||0
|-
! B !! GP !! W !! L !! GF !! GA !! PTS
|-
|align="left"|
|3||3||0||59||18||3
|-
|align="left"|
|3||2||1||46||17||2
|-
|align="left"|
|3||1||2||28||44||1
|-
|align="left"|
|3||0||3||9||63||0
|}
Final: Canada 13, Iroquois 6<br>
3rd place: United States 16, Czech Republic 7<br>
5th place: England 23, Australia 8<br>
7th place: Ireland 17, Slovakia 15 (2 game aggregate)
Source:
2015 Indoor Championship
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! Blue !! GP !! width=20|W !! width=20|L !! GF !! GA !! PTS
|-
|align="left"|
|4||4||0||67||20||4
|-
|align="left"|
|4||3||1||59||30||3
|-
|align="left"|
|4||2||2||43||47||2
|-
|align="left"|
|4||1||3||22||57||1
|-
|align="left"|
|4||0||4||24||61||0
|-
! Red !! GP !! W !! L !! GF !! GA !! PTS
|-
|align="left"|
|3||3||0||49||29||3
|-
|align="left"|
|3||2||1||37||22||2
|-
|align="left"|
|3||1||2||39||40||1
|-
|align="left"|
|3||0||3||17||51||0
|-
! Green !! GP !! W !! L !! GF !! GA !! PTS
|-
|align="left"|
|3||2||1||36||24||2
|-
|align="left"|
|3||2||1||27||29||2
|-
|align="left"|
|3||1||2||29||36||1
|-
|align="left"|
|3||1||2||27||30||1
|}
Final: Canada 12, Iroquois 8<br>
3rd place: United States 15, Israel 4<br>
5th place: England 14, Ireland 12<br>
7th place: Czech Republic 20, Australia 11<br>
9th place: Finland 24, Turkey 6<br>
11th place: Germany 13, Serbia 12
Source:
See also
- Box lacrosse
- Federation of International Lacrosse
- Women's Lacrosse World Cup
- World Lacrosse Men's U20 Championship
- World Lacrosse Women's U20 Championship
- World Junior Lacrosse Championship (men)
- European Box Lacrosse Championships (men)
References
External links
- Federation of International Lacrosse