Frisbee goes competitive, Delhi to host `Ultimate Int`l`

New Delhi: Popular as a leisure sport, frisbee will go competitive when 300 players from 14 teams pass the disc in the first ever `International Ultimate Tournament` to be held here for two days starting Saturday.

`The Ultimate Delhight 2011` will take place at the National stadium in which 14 teams from India and countries such as Dubai, Kuwait and Bahrain would compete. The ultimate frisbee is played between two teams of seven players on a large rectangular pitch. A line drawn across the pitch at either end creates two "endzones" (like in American Football). These are the goal-scoring areas. A goal is scored when a team completes a pass to a player standing (or more likely running) in the endzone they are attacking. A popular leisure activity on beaches and parks, it is for the first time that the national capital will play host to a tournament of this kind. "It is a first for Delhi but India already has 20 clubs which play it. Besides, cities such as Bangkok, Singapore have hosted international tournaments of it," said one of the organisers of the `The Ultimate Delhight 2011`, Komal Mehra, who will compete for a Delhi club in the event. "It will be a regular on Delhi`s calendar and we will have it every year around the same time. We will have some workshops also to pick up talent," she added. "This is a grassroot game, the cost is low. You don`t need infrastructure. All you need is a team and it is the only truly co-ed sport with tremendous growth potential. It will cost just Rs 2,000 to start the game with four men and three women in the team." Fourteen teams with one flying disc and no referee, Ultimate Frisbee incorporates aspects of basketball, soccer and rugby to form a no-contact sport. Players cannot run with the disc and one has to stop and try to throw it to another player. PTI