Bengaluru’s Ultimate Frisbee team has best ever finish by an Indian club at Asia-Oceania event

At the recently concluded Asia Oceanic Ultimate and Guts Club Championship (AOUGCC) held in Manila, Philippines, Airbenders, a Bengaluru-based Ultimate Frisbee club, was the sole representation from India in the men’s division and finished 13th out of 22 teams — the highest ever finish by an Indian club.
Ultimate Frisbee is an athletic, fast-growing, mixed gender sport played with a frisbee on a near-football sized field.The Bengaluru team primarily plays in the mixed division (in which both genders play together), but for this tournament, they went as a men’s team. Speaking about their preparation and taking part in a new division, the club’s coach, Dhatri HV, says, “For AOUGCC, India was awarded two bids (slots) by the World Flying Disc Federation, one in mixed and one in men’s. Ultimate Players Association of India, the governing body of the sport in India, awarded the mixed bid to Airborne, a highly-rated Chennai-based team, and we were given the men’s. In preparation for the tournament, apart from weekly practices and fitness sessions, we had four weekend training camps — one each month from May till August, where we conducted drills, strategies, scrimmages and team bonding activities.”
At the four-day tournament, Airbenders, with a squad size of 18 players, competed against club teams from other countries such as Japan, Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia and China. Giving a summary of the team’s performance, club captain Ajith Soundararajan says, “Out of the eight games we played, we won four games — against two Filipino teams and one each from Singapore and China, scoring an average of 10 goals every game. This is the second edition of AOUGCC that Indian clubs have taken part in, and none of the others have managed more than two wins. So we went hoping to win at least two games and ended up winning four with a 50% win ratio, the highest by any Indian club so far. That makes us very proud of our achievements.”
Airbenders added another feather to their cap by finishing as the third most-spirited team in the men’s division. Explaining the concept of Spirit of the Game (SotG), vice-captain Vinayak Puthran says, “In Ultimate Frisbee, a lot of emphasis is on SotG, which basically means respecting your opponents and playing fair with a positive attitude. That is why even at such international tournaments, there are no referees or umpires, and it is up to the players to uphold the spirit of sportsmanship and play with the rules. Teams are rated for their fair-mindedness and spirit by their opponents, and to have finished third is a great source of joy for us.”
Nomadic Tribe, a Japanese club team, won the men’s division, and Singaporean team Crackerjacks Crush finished runners-up. Young Blood from Philippines were adjudged the most spirited team.