WFDF Announces Great Grandmasters Division due to the Unprecedented Demand of the 2017 World Championships of Beach Ultimate

7 December 2016

The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) is excited to announce that it is sanctioning the 2017 World Great Grand Masters Beach Ultimate Championships (WGGMBUC) which will be hosted in Lisbon, Portugal from 17-21 June 2017. This announcement comes after WFDF received 200 bids for the 2017 WCBU and received interest from eight nations to host a championship for the Great Grand Masters division, the first for the age division. Any player who is 48 years as of December 31, 2017 will be eligible to play and the tournament will be an open division format.

WFDF will be looking to split off all of its masters’ division events from the men’s/women’s/mixed gender divisions championships beginning with the Ultimate Club Championships in 2018, and it is contemplated that the Great Grandmasters division may be included going forward. Juniors and Under 24 events are already separate. "It’s exciting that we have gotten to the point where we have so much demand that we are having to organize another event to accommodate teams," said WFDF President Robert "Nob" Rauch. "Initially we weren’t sure how many teams would show interest for the WCBU but the groundswell of player interest to have us to accommodate athletes in the 48+ age bracket is indicative of the growth of the sport and its attractiveness for all ages."

WFDF was approved as an associate member by the International Masters Games Association in the Spring of 2016. Only four months later, Ultimate was featured as a demonstration sport at the Americas Masters Games in Vancouver Canada in August 2016.

The 2017 WGGMBUC will be hosted in association with BULA, who has worked with the WFDF in past championship Beach Ultimate events. "It is great to see that the inaugural Great Grandmaster World Championships will be held in Portugal. Thirteen years ago, the first Beach Ultimate World Championships were held there and since then we’ve seen incredible growth," said Patrick van der Valk, President of BULA. "Kudos to GGM organizers Jasper Zimmerman of Germany and Dan Powers of the USA for catalyzing this initiative. BULA is proud to be a part of this and continue to support Beach Ultimate worldwide. Beach Ultimate rocks!"

Best regards,

Volker Bernardi

Executive Director

World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF)

Enggasse 2a, D - 55296 Harxheim, Germany

Phone: +49 (0) 6138 / 90 20 868

Fax: +49 (0) 6138 / 90 20 869

Mobile: +49 176 64 19 77 02

eMail: volker.bernardi@wfdf.org

Web: www.wfdf.org

About WFDF: The World Flying Disc Federation is the international sports federation responsible for world governance of flying disc (FrisbeeTM) sports, including Ultimate, Beach Ultimate, Guts, and Individual Events. WFDF is a federation of member associations which represent flying disc sports and their athletes in more than 65 countries. WFDF is an international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), a member of ARISF, SportAccord and the International World Games Association, and it is a registered not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation in the state of Colorado, USA. The WFDF Executive Committee: President Robert L. "Nob" Rauch, Secretary Thomas Griesbaum, Treasurer Kate Bergeron.

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