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Fringe sport gets off to a flier

By Todd Balazovic (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-05-23 08:03

Ultimate Frisbee players compete during the fifth China Nationals on Sunday. Team Hong Kong won the championship. Wang Jing / China Daily

Frisbee fans from far and wide hit capital for Nationals

More than 400 Ultimate Frisbee fans gathered in Beijing's suburbs on Sunday to compete in the largest China Nationals tournament.

The event, which is now in its fifth year, was staged at the Bayhood No 9 Golf Course in northeast Beijing and attracted 21 teams from as far as Hong Kong and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

"This is the biggest tournament the city has had since Ultimate Frisbee arrived in China," said 29-year-old Hong Kong event coordinator Alicia Lui, who has played a role in the last five tournaments.

Ultimate Frisbee, one of China's youngest sports, is a non-contact sport that consists of two teams attempting to carry a plastic disc into each other's end-zone to score 13 points. Passing is the only way the Frisbee can be moved.

"It combines the core skills of basketball with the movement and strategy of rugby," Liu said.

Although the pastime has seen a rise in popularity in recent years, with more cities forming teams, it has not yet found the backing of major sports.

"It's definitely becoming more popular, it's grown a lot since I first played in China. Right now, the scene is still small," Liu said.

However, it is the small-community feel of Ultimate Frisbee that sets the activity apart from the mainstream sports.

"Ultimate Frisbee doesn't have the competitive attitude most sports have," she explained. "The whole thing is more about coming and showing your spirit."

Banging drums, taunting jeers and the occasional "boo" filled the outdoor stadium at Bayhood as Team Hong Kong unseated the reigning champion Tanjin Big in the final.

"I think most people were rooting for Hong Kong just because they were the underdogs," said Luke Martineac, an American language student who traveled to Beijing from Changsha in Hunan Province to compete.

Martineac began playing Ultimate Frisbee in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu, because he could not find people to play ice hockey, his favored sport. "It's different from most other sports I've played just because it's so laidback," he said.

His teammate Hannah Lincoln agreed. "It's the only sport I've ever played where it's OK to cheer your teammate's mistakes," said the Team Changsha member, who played Ultimate Frisbee at college in the United States for more than four years.

"If you're playing in a game, it's guaranteed you'll get heckled a bit, but that's the most fun part about it," she added.

China Daily

(China Daily 05/23/2011)