The World Games are held every 4 years and are for sports that just don’t have ‘it’ to be in the Olympics, but are still great sports. Korfball, a sport I grew up with, is one of them and so is (grass) Ultimate.
The 2009 World Games started last week in Chinese Taipei and Ultimate saw it first action today. The weather was hot (30 Celsius at 9:30 AM) and the stadium was filled with 8,000 spectators!
The games were exciting. Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) was better than expected but still lost twice in front of the home crowd. Japan and US both went undefeated with the US slapping gold-hopeful Canada around: 13-6. Australia is looking good and the Brits had a great last effort against Japan, but they were behind too far (5-0 and 9-2) to realistically hope for a miracle. They got to 12-10 but then Japan finished it: 13-10.
The scores on day 1:
Canada – Great Britain: 13-10
Japan – Chinese Taipei: 13-7
United States – Australia: 13-11
Japan – Great Britain: 13-10
Australia – Chinese Taipei: 13-9
Canada – United States: 6-13
If you want to follow the action live, check out the following URL’s and twitter feeds:
http://results.worldgames2009.tw/en/Comp.mvc/DetailedSchedule/FD/
http://wg09.net/cms/index.php
http://wg09.net/displayGames.php
http://hichannel.hinet.net/2009wg/live.html (seems to air the last day finals etc… Internet Explorer only)
http://www.upa.org/programs/intl/worldgames2009/updates
http://twitter.com/pottsy02
http://twitter.com/pierstruter
http://twitter.com/upaorg
As far as I know, no live TV feeds online. A bit of a dissapointment because after seeing it at the WUGC in Vancouver last summer and I come to expect this, especially from a large event such as the World Games. Perhaps because of (local) commercial interests this is not done? Who knows. All I know is that pressing refresh every 30 seconds is just not optimal đŸ˜‰
News
Rules quiz
Since last year BULA has been using the WFDF rules with a BULA appendix. This allows all players worldwide to have the same basis to play with (with the exception of the US that uses the UPA rules)
If you want to know how good your rules knowledge is, check out the Rules Quiz at: http://rjhberg.googlepages.com/WFDFQuiz2009.xls
This quiz is in Excel. I recommend you “Enable Macros” when opening. That way the answers can be revealed by clicking on the “Answers” button. If not, you can use the “unhide” function to reveal the answers.
Happy quizzing!
2009 Xefina HAT Tournament, Maputo, Mozambique
Dear Ultimate friends,
Yes at last!… after last year’s success we promised to organise the Xefina HAT tournament again in 2009! And here it is:
This year it will be on the holiday of Friday May 1st and Saturday May 2nd! The Sunday is open for some interesting and relaxing excursions in Mocambique… or just for some nice lullas/camarao and cerveja while looking at the ocean.
Due to the tide that weekend we will organise a 5 on 5 multi-surface tournament, Friday we’ll play on the beach of the island of Xefina (in the bay of Maputo) and on Saturday we’ll be playing at the fields of the American School (same teams and beach ultimate size fields).
The tourney is limited to 60 participants and we plan to have always 2 women/3 men in the field.
Parties… yes there will be plenty… that goes without saying in Mozambique! One party will be in the old train station of Maputo built in 1910 by Mr. Gustave Eiffel, a very inspiring venue.
If you want to be part of this year’s great tournament send us an e-mail: [email protected].
First come first serve!
Happy hucking,
Stef Stevens
www.mozultimate.com
Kenyan Beach Ultimate tournament
It is always wonderful to see Beach Ultimate tournaments start anywhere on the planet, but when it is done in Africa it makes it even more special. There is so much potential for the sport there.
FEAST (Frisbee East Africa Sand Tournament) is held at Tiwi Beach, Kenya April 11-12 2009 (Easter Weekend). Organized by Nairobi Ultimate, in a few years this could be the African Paganello.
If you like to travel to interesting places and play Beach Ultimate, you will love going to Kenya. Check it out www.kenyaultimate.blogspot.com
Pass the word!
SAMBURU – Nairobi
The 1st women-only Beach Ultimate tournament
Spanish Beach Ultimate is booming! Only surpassed by the US they host the most Beach Ultimate tournaments in the world! Last year there were 7 Beach Ultimate tournaments in Spain and that is growing already. The latest edition is a world premier: The first women-only Beach Ultimate tournament!
Organized by Corocotta from Santander (North of Spain) this event will take place 28-29 March. (If you want to play: registration closes 24 January). Great initiative. Perhaps that will help take European female Ultimate player off the endangered species list… đŸ™‚
Spanish women at the World Championships in Portugal
4-on-4 Beach Ultimate takes root in France
Five-on-five Beach Ultmate might the most popular Beach Ultimate format worldwide, but 4-on-4 Beach Ultimate is growing too. The Wildwood tournament, with 2,200 players, is a huge 4-on-4 event in the US.In Belgium, the Philippines, Egypt, Mexico, and New Zealand there also 4-on-4 tournaments.
This month, in the south of France, a 4-on-4 Beach Ultimate league has started.
For the last 3 years French players have been playing in a series of 4-on-4 Beach Ultimate tournaments “Collègues” on the Mediterranean coast. It was so successful that the organizer (StĂ©phane) and some of his friends decided to create a national 4-on-4 Beach Ultimate League (LBU44) which started this month.
With 8 teams participating it is the first full 4-on-4 league in Europe. That is great news. Allez les Bleus!
Is Wildwood the biggest tournament in the world?
Some communication went on recently about the size of tournaments. Of course size doesn’t matter, but we all still want to know who has the biggest.
According to Tony Leonardo:
Last year Paga had 48 open teams, 32 mixed, a gaggle of womens teams and juniors teams. Paga is 5 on 5 and team sizes tended to be larger than 4-on-4 Wildwood by about 5-6 people per team. So maybe team sizes of 15 and multiply that by 110 and you get 1650 or so Wildwood had 300+ teams this year, but lets estimate that about 50 of those teams double up and play in 2 divisions. So lets say 250 teams with about 9 peeps on each, so 2250 folks, all of them, coincidentally, teenagers from Philadelphia and North Jersey.
Potlatch this year had 104 teams i think, team size about 20+ so that puts them around 2100? Potlatch is the largest grass tournament in the world, i am pretty sure so Wildwood could be the largest (and fattest) tournament of all?
What about World Club Championships? Is that bigger? Of course that is not an annual event but I wonder how big that one was last time. Anybody know?
Wii add-on might help disc sports
Yesterday in Los Angeles Nintendo unveiled a new add-on for the Wii remote. A small accessory, called the Wii MotionPlus, plugs into the base of the Wii remote to more accurately sense subtle movements such as the twist of a wrist, Nintendo said in a demonstration of a game involving the tossing of a virtual Frisbee.
The Wii already has one disc game. In Big Beach there is a disc golf game that actually allows three ways to throw the disc: backhand, forehand and hammer. Hammer is the coolest one, obviously, but whichever you way you decide to flick the Remote, your avatar will mimic your motion and it’ll all affect where the Frisbee goes.
Perhaps we will eventually see a full (Beach) Ultimate game developed. Wouldn’t that be cool?!
Boracay Open Finals
I suppose it shouldn’t have been a total surprise the way the Boracay Dragons A (so-named for the dragon boat races on the island — a few of the players are dragon rowers) dominated the finals, winning, in effect, 16-5 over Manila’s league champion Sexual Chocolate. 16 points because the last goal was an end-zone to end-zone huck which, like Wildwood or those Florida tournaments, is worth 2 points.
The Dragons were fast, deep (roster of 17 i believe) and basically played smart. Their D caused SexChoc to make throwaways which the Dragons converted with efficiency. Game started out 4-0 or 5-0 and was never in doubt.
In semis, Dragons A (White) beat Dragons C (Blue/Yellow), while Dragons B (Silver) lost to Sex Choc 10-9 when the game ended on a one-pointer when the team needed a two-pointer to tie and prolong the game (alas, thrown by me)
In the Important Prizes at the crazy beach after-party, the Manila-based team called Dragon Katol, so named for the local spiral mosquito repellent incense, won the Spirit of the Game, the Party Award and one of their regular player Christian (who played with Boracay Dragons here and was MVP of WBUC in Brazil) won the MVP making it some sort of weird Katol sweep.
Party Details: this tournament was sponsored by a Filipino energy drink, 100 Plus, a number of fine establishments on the beach like the Hey Jude bar, Summer Place bar and grill and Smoke Restaurant, to name a few. Also a TV network/channel sponsored prizes for Spirit/Party and “Top 4 Players” awards which included a compass from the TV show “Lost.” Evidently Lost is coming on air here soon.
But the number one sponsor in terms of ubiquitousness was Colt 45, “America’s leading premium strong beer.” However, we don’t have “strong beer” in America, only the more apt designation “malt liquor” a category which Colt 45 probably created too, heck.
Colt 45 is a great and wonderful brew for smashing one’s head to mulch for the following day. But it was free.
The finals were pretty colorful: the usual loudspeaker setup, lots of local fans clapping and cheering, all of the teams here, tons of cameras with nice lenses, a TV station was here to do a segment on the tournament and the team (airing March 29th in Manila I was told — a sports show, nonetheless)
Once again the talk of the day from the Dragons was about how excited they were to bring their game to other tournaments around the world and how psyched they would be to host more traveling players and teams to this tournament. In fact, it appeared that besides a small Singapore team with none of the players from Freakshow, the only travelers here were Jane and I, Izzy and Pierre the French-Canadian handlebar-mustache brothers and two blokes from Regina, Saskatchewan. Truly that will change in the future because it is pretty good times here with lots of free food, free beer, tournament shirt and disc included, parties every night and good competition.
I’m trying to get some pictures up but otherwise go to the official tourney photographers websites:
http://ssshortzzz.multiply.com (not up yet)
http://ogong.multiply.com (not up yet)
More later
Tony
A Beach Ultimate trip of a life time…
Every year BULA helps a local group of Beach Ultimate lovers promote a special Beach Ultimate event somewhere on the planet. The Beach Ultimate Traveling Tournament (BUTT) helped start the Mundialito in Brazil in 2002. The BUTT also assisted players in the Canary Islands to help start the now famous CFC tournament, and it has helped Israel setup a huge Beach Ultimate tournament (BULAFLOW) in 2005. This year it is helping to promote the Beach Ultimate trip of a life time in New Zealand…
Local players are organizing a 5-weeks-4-tournaments Beach Ultimate series that start in the centre of New Zealand; Wellington. On 3-4 February players and teams are welcome at the Wgtn Wild Wind tournament ; then the series moves, week at a time, north to beautiful Hawkes Bay for the Boutique Beach Tournament; then to the good weather north of Auckland and the Ocean Beach tournament in Whangarei ; ending up after a two week break for sightseeing travel, on South Island’s premiere beach area, Nelson, where you can play at the Flat Out on the Beach tournament.
I know it is short notice, but in case you have the travel bug, know someone who does, or you are in the area… check it out: www.beachultimate.org.nz. New Zealand has always been a great travel destination and now you can play some great Beach Ultimate too.
And… if you still have some time spare you should fly from the last tournament in Nelson straight to the Philippines and play at the amazing Boracay Beach Ultimate tournament 8-9 March… talking about a dream trip…