Mud up to her waist and the yellow wig hanging sideways, swamp-soccer veteran Tuula Brocke reached for the ball just barely a metre in front of her, but her foot would not move an inch.
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Playing ball in the swamp is like a slow-motion movie coming to a halt every time a player sinks in a hole, she said.
"Your opponent snatches the ball right in front of your nose, but you are stuck in the mass of dung and cannot move at all," she said, while wiping dried crust of her arms and face.
Brocke's team, the G-Spots, is one of 340 which competed in this year's Swamp Soccer World Championships, held in northern Finland for the 10th time in a row.
Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Russia were among the growing number of foreign teams. Organisers estimate some 10,000 people attended the event each of the three days.
Image: A goalkeeper in the mixed division celebrates after her team won a match at the World Swamp Soccer championships.
Photograph and Text: Reuters
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