The sports program for flying disc (known as disco volador in Spanish) at the IWGA World Games in Cali Colombia will commence Sunday July 28 and run for three days, through Tuesday July 30. Ultimate is the featured discipline for the sport, which the international governing body World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) presents in a mixed-gender format. The World Games is the 11-day multi-sport event run by the International World Games Association under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee. More than 4,000 athletes will compete in 31 sports of the World Games program.
Five nations (Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Japan and the USA) qualified to send teams limited to 13 athletes to participate in the World Games through a formula based on standings in the last WFDF World Championships held in 2012 in Sakai, Japan, while Colombia received an automatic bid as the host team. For the competition, Canada is the first seed, followed by the USA, Japan, Australia, Great Britain, and Colombia.
The event has been fully embraced by the people of Cali, the third largest city in Colombia located in Colombia’s western valley. The Opening Ceremony for the 2013 World Games on Thursday July 25 was the official welcome to participating athletes from 107 countries and will come to an end with the Closing Ceremony on Sunday, August 4. For the opening ceremony, featured speakers included Ron Froehlich, IWGA President, Jacques Rogge, IOC President, and the Vice President of Colombia.
WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch stated “We are extremely proud to be part of this 2013 edition of the World Games, the biggest TWG event ever. The event adopted the motto “Fair Play to the Planet,” and we believe that Ultimate with its “spirit of the game” exemplifies the ideals for which they are striving. As the first multi-sports event in which we are participating since being recognized by the IOC in May, we intend to showcase our sport in the best way possible. We are confident that the athletes on all six teams will exemplify both sports excellence as well as tremendously spirited play as an example to all. We also thank our Technical Delegate Mauricio Moore and of his staff, along with our national member AJUC, for all their hard work and dedication to make sure that everything was in good order for the event.”
The Ultimate competition will begin on Sunday, 28 July at 8:30 a.m. Cali time when Japan matches up against Colombia. All games will played at Cali’s Estadio Olimpico Pascual Guerrero, the venue of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. As of earlier this week, nearly 50,000 tickets for the Ultimate competition over the three days had been sold. Round-robin match play ends Tuesday, 30 July at 11:30 a.m. when USA meets Great Britain. The bronze medal game is scheduled for 16:00 later on that day and the gold medal match at 18:00. The medal ceremony will follow immediately after the final.
All games in the Ultimate competition over the three days are scheduled to be live streamed online on the official World Games website`s Internet Broadcast channel at http://tv.theworldgames2013.com/en/channel/?channelId=13-disco-volador.html. The entire cost of the live-streaming production was underwritten by the global flying disc community which raised nearly US$16,000 in a crowdfunding campaign in less than three days. Separately, three featured “games of the day” will also be presented on various TV networks in Colombia and around the globe.
For more information and to follow Ultimate at the World Games, please see: WFDF.org/events/twg2013. The WFDF website special features all team`s profiles, the game schedule, daily news and the results of the Ultimate event. Regular updates can also be found on Facebook and on Twitter.