2012 SA Ultimate Nationals Flyer

Ultimate players around Southern Africa nothing more need be said about this: Get your amp on!

WFDF World Ultimate Championships 2012 – Sakai, Japan

The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) hosts the World Ultimate Championships every four years where countries get to enter their best Ultimate teams in one of up to 5 different divisions: Open, Women’s, Mixed, Masters, and now possibly Women’s Masters. In July 2012 organisers expect up to 60 national teams to enter the next event hosted in the city of Sakai, Japan.

South Africa has been represented at the World Champs since as early as the 1998 event held in Minneapolis, USA. The last Worlds held in 2008 Vancouver, Canada, there was only an Open team from SA where the previous tournament in Finland had a team in 3 divisions: Open, Mixed and Junior’s (Juniors is now a separate event). In 2012 we are again looking to send an Open and Mixed division team. The Open team is being led by the capable duo of Chris Webster and Finn de Haan, both veterans of previous international campaigns. The squad has already been rounded up for a few training sessions and spirits are high. There is much work to be done over the next 7 months but there is a confidence in the air that this SA team is going to cause a few upsets. One of the weaknesses of the previous teams was the lack of unified preparation and goal – usually magnified by picking up stronger international players who play with a different style. This time around the preparation schedule has been set early and incorporates a largely Cape Town based squad which includes a refreshing amount of young blood. Even the international boys in the squad are going to be around for the majority of training, which promises to result in a strong and unified team to represent South Africa.

With the Open division leading the more competitive men astray, the Mixed team has in the past traditionally incorporated the Ultimate crowd that is both enthusiastic and social. These are the men and ladies that aim for the best experience possible which usually involves a play hard and play hard attitude. The rumour on the interweb is that the Mixed team organisers are hoping to have an even thirds split of players from Gauteng, Kwazulu Natal, and the Cape. The difficulty with the Mixed team is recruiting enough women since the rules state that there must be at least 3 persons of each gender on the field for each team.

Being a largely self-sponsored sport, both of these representative squads will need to dig deep into their pockets to get the funds together to make the trip. There are plans in the pipeline to run a few fund raising initiatives to help ease the financial burden and we can definitely use any help and support on offer. If you are interested in finding out more about these international campaigns and how you can help with fundraising or sponsorship then please send an email through to us: contact[at]safda.org.za or wildcard.enterprises [at ]gmail.com