Hunt on for Ultimate athletes

Remember the ``Flying Saucer'', later called the Frisbee?

Many of us getting too old to fling ourselves around on hard grounds will have thrown the Flying Saucer, and caught or missed the Frisbee.

Same thing, just a different name in a different year. Now the sport has another name _ Ultimate (Frisbee) _ and it's here, waiting to be played at the Masters Games in Wanganui on February 5

To suggest there's been a lukewarm reception to the introduction of the new sport would be true, but organisers are now taking it on board that people just didn't know what it was all about _ so ignored it.

So the entry price has been cut ($25 to $20), and the age limit (30) slashed to 20, and the hunt is on to find people willing to have a crack at a game they figured might have been just a teenage fad back in the 1940s/50s, but is, in fact, a sport now played reasonably seriously by almost five million people in the United States.

Sport Wanganui's leading the way by entering a team (seven on the field at one time), and More/FM and a Wellington/Palmerston North mixed side are also coming to the party.

Another three or four teams are needed for a decent competition _ and in fact a team from one of New Zealand's two competitions (Wellington and Auckland) will come if a serious competition can be organised, says Sport Wanganui's Rachael O'Connor, who is the sport's co-ordinator and also a member of her organisation's team.

``The Air Force (Bulls) might also enter a team,'' she said.

It's now only the third sport at the Masters to have a low 20 age limit. The others are swimming and gymnastics. O'Connor hopes this will entice groups of younger people around the area to have a quick practice and enter a team.

The closing date has been changed from January 22 to much closer to game day.

And Ultimate Frisbee, or ``Ultimate'' as it's known in the US, is what?

Wikipedia says: Ultimate is a team sport played with a flying disc. The object is to score points by passing the disc to a fellow team player in the opposition end zone. Players may not run with the disc, and a dropped or missed throw leads to a turnover. Formerly Ultimate Frisbee, it is now called Ultimate because Frisbee is registered as a trademark for the line of discs made by the Wham-O Toy Company in the US.

In 2008 there were 4.9 million Ultimate players in the United States. The original frisbee is nothing more than a pie tin from the Frisbie Pie Company located in New Haven, Connecticut. It was in the early 1920s that students from Yale University started playing catch with their pie tins.

The game is self-refereed with a huge emphasis on integrity.

Ultimate is known for its ``Spirit of the Game``, often abbreviated SOTG. Ultimate's self-officiated nature demands a strong spirit of sportsmanship and respect.-->