Leeuwarden will be hosting ultimate Frisbee players from 40 different countries during the WFDF 2020 World Ultimate and Guts Championships.
Translation by Traci White
The eight-day championships will be played in Leeuwarden in July of 2020. The Frisian capital was chosen as the host city for the event, beating out Australia and Canada’s bids.
The Dutch Frisbee Union made a bid for the event with support from the city and the province. The city will be investing 100,000 euros into the tournament, and the province has earmarked 35,000 euros.
The event will see up to 3,500 ultimate Frisbee players coming to the city to face off on 20 different fields across the city, and the final match will be played at the Cambuur stadium. The Leeuwarder Courant reports that last year’s finale drew 10,000 spectators in London.
There are 1,580 Dutch members of the national Frisbee union, which has 36 separate clubs. Representatives of the sport are campaigning to have it added to the 2028 Olympic Games. The game reportedly originated at Amherst College in Massachusetts in the 1960s.
| How is ultimate Frisbee played?
According to the World Flying Disc Federation, “Ultimate is a non-contact, self-refereed team sport played with a flying disc (or Frisbee™). Two teams of seven players compete on a playing field about the same length as a football field, but narrower. At each end of the playing field there is an end zone. Each team defends one endzone. 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 team-mates 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.” |
