WFDF 2016 World Ultimate and Guts Championship Reaches Quarterfinal Stage
23 June 2016
The WFDF 2016 World Ultimate and Guts Championship reached the quarterfinal stage of the event beginning today, with the top seeds in each division of play remaining largely intact.
The preliminary and play-off rounds of the WUGC 2016 are being held at the University College London (UCL) Sports Ground in London Colney. The tournament organizing committee, headed by UK Ultimate CEO Simon Hill and Tournament Director Jon Pugh, set up 27 high-quality grass competition pitches that cover a total area of 143 acres. The opening ceremony was held on Sunday 19 June. The final day's gold medal games will be held on Saturday 25 June at Allianz Park stadium, home of Rugby's reigning Premiership Champions, Saracens RFC.
Read the full Press Release here as pdf.
“It’s been an action-packed week so far,” stated WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch. Despite a number of incredibly close and spirited games, there have been few upsets in the first four days of play and we are heading into the play-off rounds with most of the top seeds intact. Spectators at the stadium or through broadcast should be treated to a great day of Ultimate at the finals on Saturday. As our largest World Championship ever, it has also been exciting to welcome for the first time a number of countries to our premier event.”
Slightly more than 3,000 athletes are participating in the event, representing 115 Ultimate teams from 39 countries. Competition is being held in five divisions: mixed gender (30 teams), men’s (31), women’s (26), men’s masters (17), and women’s masters (11). In addition, there are 8 teams competing in the discipline of Guts Frisbee.
For Ultimate in the mixed division, Canada (seeded 1) will play Colombia (10), Australia (2) takes on Japan (3), USA (4) faces off against Philippines (7), and Great Britain (5) goes up against France (8). In the men’s division, it will be USA (1) vs. Colombia (10), Great Britain (2) vs. Australia (7), Canada (3) vs. Germany (4), and Japan (5) vs. Belgium (8). In the women’s division, Japan (1) will play Australia (5), USA (2) takes on Switzerland (6), Canada (3) faces off against Russia (13), and Colombia (4) goes up against Germany (11). Semi-finals matchups will be held Friday and the finals played on Saturday.
In the masters’ division of Ultimate, play is now at the semi-final level, with the finals to be held Friday. In the men’s masters, Canada (1) will face off against Great Britain (8) and the USA (4) will take on Denmark (5). In the women’s masters, it will be USA (1) vs. Japan (4) and Canada (2) vs. Australia (3).
For Guts, play resumes Friday with a semi-final “play in” round for the fourth and fifth place teams after round robin play, Great Britain and Germany 1. The winner of that game will take on USA1 in the first semi-final game, with Japan vs. USA2 in the other semi-final. The winners of the semi-finals will compete for the gold medal at 1700 BST later in the day.
Over two dozen games have already been livestreamed throughout the week The game streams are available at livestream.com, at wfdf.org/live, the WFDF Facebook page, WFDF’s youtube channel, and the World Games channel. A two hour broadcast will be televised in North America on Saturday 25 June on CBS Sports Network from 1600-1800 EDT.
A total of 39 countries are competing in the 2016 WUGC. These are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Democratic Republic of Congo, People’s Republic of China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Spain, Finland, France, Great Britain, Germany, Hong Kong China, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovakia, Republic of Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, and USA.
What is Ultimate?
Ultimate is a non-contact, self-refereed team sport played with a flying disc (aka a Frisbee). Two teams of seven players compete on a playing field about the same length as an American football field, but narrower. At each end of the playing field there is an end zone. Each team defends one end zone. They score a goal if one of their players catches the disc in the opposite end zone. The player with the disc is called the thrower. The thrower may not run with the disc. Instead they move the disc by passing to teammates in any direction. The defensive team gets possession of the disc if an offensive team’s throw is not caught by a player of the same team. Then the defensive team becomes the offensive team and can try to score in the opposite end zone. A key element of the game is that there are no referees and players make their own calls on the field, under a code known as “spirit of the game.”
What is Guts Frisbee?
Guts is played by two teams of five players each. The playing field consists of two parallel goal-lines 15 m in length and 14 m apart. The teams stand in line opposite each other. Each team defends a goal- line. The disc is thrown back and forth between the teams. The object is to throw the disc through the line of defending players. The throwing team scores a point when the other team does not catch a correctly thrown disc. The receiving team scores a point when the disc is not thrown correctly. When a correctly thrown disc is caught by the other team, no points are scored. The team that first reaches 21 points wins the game.
About WFDF:
The World Flying Disc Federation (“WFDF”) serves as the international governing body of all flying disc (frisbee) sports. WFDF is made up of the National Associations (“Members”) that govern their respective disc sports in over 65 countries. WFDF is the International Federation recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for Flying Disc sports, a member of the Association of Recognised International Federations (ARISF), a member of SportAccord and the International World Games Association, is recognized as a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) registered corporation in the State of Colorado, USA, and it is a signatory of the World Anti-Doping Agency code. WFDF estimates that over 7.5 million people globally play disc sports competitively.
For more information, please contact:
Volker Bernardi, Executive Director
World Flying Disc Federation
Engasse 2a, D - 55296 Harxheim GERMANY
+49-176-6419-7702 •
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
• www.wfdf.org
Latest WFDF Communiques
16 August 2019 - Official Communication 
The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) is pleased to announce that it has published a report of the results of the third edition of the Global Disc Sports Community survey. The first one was launched in February 2014 and the survey was designed to gather input from athletes, coaches, administrators, tournament directors and anyone else involved with disc sports from around the globe, with the second edition executed in 2016. This recent survey was launched in June 2019 and responses were collected through 21 July 2019 and was open to anyone.
“WFDF thanks everyone who participated. This is very useful to our efforts to get input directly from the athletes and other members of the community,” stated WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch. “We wanted to gather demographic information about the disc sports community that could be used to support promotional efforts to further the sport, and to get input on a variety of topics that are currently being discussed.”
07 August 2019 - Official Communication
The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) is pleased to announce the formation of a new WFDF Information Technology (IT) Committee to assist the board in evaluating upgrades to its systems over the next two years and oversee the work of a paid administrator.
The newly formed WFDF IT Committee will be chaired on an interim basis by Luke Tobiasiewicz and is made up of volunteers from all around the globe. Drawing experience from all facets of IT provision, the members of the committee also represent all areas of flying disc sports from Ultimate to Guts, SOTG to Streaming, Events to Governance, and more. The committee will aim to advise the WFDF board on how best to leverage IT in solving some of the challenges facing our growing sport and providing long term solutions that can benefit Athletes, National Federations as well as WFDF staff and volunteers. The members of the committee are Rueben Berg (AUS), Maximiliano Chiale (URU), Bruno Gravato (POR), Wolfgang Maehr (AUT), Sören Petersen (DEN), and Travis Smith (CAN).
05 August 2019 - Official Communication
Update follows WFDF 2019 European Beach Ultimate Championships in association with BULA, WFDF 2019 Asia Oceanic Beach Ultimate Championships in association with BULA, WFDF 2019 All African Ultimate Championships, WFDF 2019 World Under 24 Ultimate Championships & WFDF 2019 Asia Oceanic Ultimate & Guts Championships.
The World Flying Disc Federation today released the
updated World Ultimate Rankings.
These country rankings are based on the finishing positions of teams at the most recent WFDF World and Continental Ultimate events:
● Asia Oceanic Ultimate & Guts Championships (AOUGC) 2019
● World Under 24 Ultimate Championships (WU24) 2019
● All Africa Ultimate Championships (AAUC) 2019
● Asia Oceanic Beach Ultimate Championships (AOBUC) 2019
● European Beach Ultimate Championships (EBUC) 2019
● World Ultimate Club Championships (WUCC) 2018
● World Junior Ultimate Championships (WJUC) 2018
● World Master Ultimate Club Championships (WMUCC) 2018
● World Championship of Beach Ultimate (WCBU) 2017
● World Great Grandmasters Beach Ultimate Championships (WGGMBUC) 2017
● World Ultimate and Guts Championships (WUGC) 2016
05 August 2019 - Official Communication
The WFDF Women in Sport Commission held its first ever regional workshop at the Asian-Oceanic Ultimate and Guts Championship (AOUGC 2019) in Shanghai on July 25.
The event was well attended with 50 attendees from 13 regional countries, with men making up a third of the group.
Please read the full Press release here. 31 July 2019 - Official Communication
The World Flying Disc Federation (“WFDF”) is pleased to announce that its Congress has approved the Flying Disc Federation of Bulgaria (BFDF) as its newest Member association, increasing WFDF’s membership to 85 national member associations.
“We are extremely pleased to welcome BFDF to the WFDF Flying Disc family as the national association from Bulgaria,” commented WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch. “Expanding our membership in Eastern Europe demonstrates the growth of Flying Disc sports in that region. The WFDF Development program has targeted several additional countries in the Balkans and we are looking forward to adding other candidates for membership soon.”
24 July 2019 - Official Communication
The first games of the WFDF 2019 Asia Oceanic Ultimate and Guts Championships (AOUGC) started in Shanghai on Tuesday, 23 July 2019. Running through Saturday 27 July, this five day event is being held at Shanghai Community Sports Club in Shanghai Gaohang Sunland, People’s Republic of China.
Over 525 athletes from 11 countries will compete for the gold medal for the Asian Oceanic Ultimate Championship across three divisions. There will be 7 Men’s, 7 Women’s, and 11 Mixed gender teams competing, from Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand, and Chinese Taipei. There will also be 30 athletes from Japan, Chinese Taipei, and the USA competing in the WFDF 2019 Asia Guts Open (AGO), with the victor between Japan and Chinese Taipei also being crowned the Asian Oceanic Guts Champion.
24 July 2019 - Official Communication
After six days of competition in Richmond, Virginia, the 2019 WFDF World Overall Flying Disc Championships concluded with the crowning of a new champion in the Open division, and a repeat champion in the Women’s division.
The USA finished atop the medal count with 38 medals (19 gold, 11 silver, and 11 bronze), while Chinese Taipei finished second with 27 (6 gold, 11 silver, and 10 bronze), and Sweden finished third with 19 (9 gold, 4 silver, and 6 bronze).
Sam Kaye from Virginia, USA won his first ever World Overall title and Juliana Korver from California, USA won her fourth straight World Overall title. In the Juniors division, En-hsuan Chang from Chinese Taipei and Ellie Cymrot from the USA won their first ever World Overall titles in Open and Women’s, respectively.
21 July 2019 - Official Communication
Team USA went undefeated during eight days of competition, with a combined 31-0 record across three divisions, on their way to winning three gold medals at the WFDF 2019 World Under-24 Ultimate Championships, which concluded on Saturday, July 20 in Heidelberg, Germany. The Americans took home top honors in all three divisions — Men’s, Women’s and Mixed.
Top spirit of the game prizes were awarded to Denmark in the Men’s division, South Africa in the Mixed division and both New Zealand and Australia in the Women’s division.
“It was a great week of Ultimate in the heart of Europe, and the next generation of elite athletes showed their grit and determination over the entire week while maintaining the best of spirit of the game,” stated WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch. “We were honored to introduce DOSB President Alfons Hörmann, IWGA CEO Joachim Gossow, and GAISF Director Philippe Gueisbuhler to the future of our sport. We also thank our local hosts DISC-Respect Sports group with the support of Heidelberg Sport and Health Office.”
17 July 2019 - Official Communication
The WFDF 2019 World Under-24 Ultimate Championships kicked off on Saturday, July 13, in Heidelberg, Germany. This bi-annual event features 1,150 athletes on 51 national teams from 29 countries competing in the Men’s U24, Women’s U24 and Mixed U24 divisions. WU24 will run through Saturday, July 20 with the finals at Heidelberger Sportzentrum Süd. After the opening ceremony was held Saturday, the showcase game saw the German Women’s team defeat Belgium in a decisive 15-1 victory.
The event is being organized by DISC-Respect Sports group with the support of Heidelberg Sport and Health Office. The Organizing Committee team is led by Mark Kendall and Martin Rasp who both have significant experience in hosting both national and international Ultimate events. The WU24 is open to all players who are fourteen (14) years old or older and do not turn twenty-four (24) during the calendar year 2019.
“It’s exciting to host our World Under-24s in the heart of Europe,” stated WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch. “This is a great showcase of the upcoming elite athletes in our global community and the event nicely complements our upcoming plans for working with FISU in introducing our University Games.”
More than 50 games are being streamed live from Heidelberg over the week. Ultiworld, WFDF’s primary production partner, is livestreaming more than 20 games for free on its site at https://ultiworld.com/, while Fanseat.com will livestream more than 30 games on its SVOD destination, https://www.fanseat.com/ultimate. Showcase games will also be streamed on The Olympic Channel and World Games Channel.
Distribution partner Beijing Chenyang Sports is, for the first time ever at a WFDF World Championship event, livestreaming the Arena field with Chinese Mandarin commentary throughout the People's Republic of China.
The full streaming schedule can be viewed here: https://wu24heidelberg.com/streaming
The latest news and results can be found on the WU24 website here: https://wu24heidelberg.com/live
Tickets can be purchased online at https://ticketbud.com/events/dc52a2aa-5c73-11e9-9e7b-42010a717005.
The last WU24 was held in Perth, Australia in January 2018 where the host Australian Flying Disc Association put on a very successful and popular event with 41 teams from 20 countries and nearly 1,000 players flying long distances to the shores of sunny Western Australia. 09 July 2019 - Official Communication
A group of ambassadors this month traveled to the island of Sal, Cape Verde, to introduce hundreds to Flying Disc Freestyle through demos and workshops, as part of the inaugural African Beach Games, which took place from 14-23 June 2019.
“We could not have been more pleased with the efforts of the six athletes who comprised the Freestyle official demonstration team. This is the singular largest exhibition of Freestyle Flying Disc since the 1970’s and was a perfect promotion opportunity before we see our discipline move on to the first edition of the World Urban Games in September in Budapest,” stated Kevin “Skippy” Givens, WFDF Freestyle Committee Chairperson.
|
Play True!
 |
