Wgtn Indoor Champions of Disc! tournament

Wgtn Indoor Champions of Disc! tournament

This Sunday 19 Aug, 10am-5pm, TSB Bank Arena Finals from 4pm All welcome, free entry

Wellington Ultimate players are holding an indoor tournament this Sunday to decide this year´s local champion indoor teams. The prestigious TSB Bank Arena will host numerous teams in two divisions demonstrating the high level of skills that the best players in this game develop on their way to the top.

Ultimate is a sport played with a flying disc (commonly called a frisbee), played indoors on a basketball court in winter, and outdoors on a 100m grass field in summer; and also played at various beach tournaments around NZ every summer. The rules are simple; pass the disc amongst your team mates up the field or court to the end zone, and score a point by completing a catch in that end zone. However the opposition team seek to block and intercept your passes, and they gain possession whenever any pass is incomplete. Sounds easy? It is! However, played at the top level, it is fast and exciting. It is a game requiring fitness, coordination, good disc throwing skills and quick reflexes, with lots of sprinting, jumping, and even some diving ("laying out") for the really keen!

Wellington has 3 divisions of leagues, from social to competitive, for both the indoor and the outdoor season, with around 25 teams competing weekly. Leagues are played in most of NZ´s main centres. The sport is growing in popularity world-wide, requiring little in the way of equipment, and being fun to play at any level, whether for fun and recreation, or as a serious competitive sport. Wellington also sends teams to national level competitions, with the Indoor Nationals coming up in Palmerston North in September.

Wellington has a very active ultimate sports community, including many players who have in the past been selected for NZ squads to Worlds Championship events such as with the five teams that represented NZ in each of the four categories at the World Club Championships in Perth last November. Preparations are already well under way for the next World Championships in Vancouver in 2008! Victoria University´s large Flying Disc Club, Gold Medal winners in ultimate at this year´s NZ University Games, are also currently fundraising to send a team to the Australian University games in September, so if you´re a philanthropist, or need some work done, give them a call!

This Sunday´s tournament will be the first Wgtn championship event, with awards for the top teams. There are also prizes for highest "Spirit" score, an award unique to ultimate, where teams award each other points for "sportspersonship" on the court, with the highest scoring team in each division winning a Spirit prize at the final awards. Being a self-refereeing game, conduct on the court is of utmost importance and good conduct is held in the highest regard. The Spirit prizes are traditionally the more useful of the prizes, to encourage the excellent sportspersonship and fellowship amongst the competitors that ultimate is renowned for world-wide.

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