The Canadian women's flag football team claimed the 2010 IFAF Flag Football World Championship on Sunday, August 15 in Ottawa, Ontario led by the leadership and precision of quarterback Vanessa Birri.

The gold medal game was a rematch of the opening game of the tournament as Canada faced the United States for a second time but this time with everything on the line.

In the first meeting, Canada defeated USA 33-7 as Birri led her team to a cushy 26-0 lead at the end of one half finishing the game with five touchdown passes. 

The championship game started similar as Birri again showcased her deadly arm finding receiver Emilie Pfeiffer-Badoux for a touchdown on Canada's first drive of the game. But this time the United States would not go away as easily tying the game up at 6 apiece as Karen Mulligan connected with Shawntese Charles for a touchdown.

Birri not flustered by the United States, found some offensive momentum quickly moving the ball down the field with long gains to Avery Brevett and capped the drive with another touchdown catch by Pfeiffer-Badoux who scored back-to-back touchdowns for Canada who built a 19-6 lead with only three minutes remaining in the first half.

The United States cut the deficit to seven, as Mulligan threw a perfect spiral to Chante Bonds down the middle of the field in stride for a touchdown with 4 seconds remaining the in half, but with a failed conversion Canada held a 19-12 lead after one half.

USA came out with determination in the second half, marching down the field with catches by Bonds to Canada's own 5-yard line. Mulligan hit Donna Spilotras who powered her way into the endzone cutting Canada's lead to one.

Canada immediately responded with a touchdown of their own ten seconds later with Birri's impressive arm hitting Pfeiffer-Badoux for her third score of the game. The teams traded defensive stops for the next several drives and with five minutes remaining in the game, Canada sealed the win as Birri threw another touchdown pass this time to Joanie Lanthier for her first touchdown of the game as the host Canadian women claimed the gold medal.

The Canadian women went undefeated throughout the tournament. In group play, Canada defeated the United States 33-7, Sweden 43-12, and Japan 34-14. In the game against Sweden, Birri threw a perfect spiral to Emilie Pfeiffer-Badoux in the opening seconds of the game for a touchdown and finished the game with 4 touchdowns. Against Japan, Birri also threw four touchdowns in the win to three different receivers.

With a 3-0 record concluding round robin competition, Canada claimed the number one seed in the Ladies Group B giving the team a bye in the quarterfinals and faced Austria in the semifinals. Birri again had a superb performance for Canada finishing the game 12-15 pass completions including four touchdown passes and six extra points in the dominating 48-19 victory.

Canadian quarterback Vanessa Birri stellar performances at the IFAF Flag Football World Championship did not go unnoticed as she was selected as the All Tournament Team Women's Offensive MVP.  Birri threw for 16 touchdowns as Canada scored 110 points only allowing 33 points during the group play competition.

IFAF.org would like to congratulate Vanessa Birri for her Gold medal finish at the IFAF Flag Football World Championship and honor her remarkable performance by naming her IFAF.org August 2010 Player of the Month.