Sean Nicholson, Luke Spurr, Ayrton Hodson and Daniel Nicholson are recently back from the World Junior Ultimate Championships held in Wroclaw, Poland. The boys were part of the NZ U20 Mens’ team (Katipo) and alongside the NZU20 Womens (Kahu) team competed against the heavy weights of the Ultimate (frisbee) world in a week long tournament that doubled as the Joint Junior World Championships. Both teams finished in 6th place overall (in the top half of the table) and took some big scalps on the way. Victories against the likes of Belgium, Czechoslovakia and hosts Poland, saw them in with a chance to make the semi-finals but here, in a very competitive match against eventual finalists France, their quest ended. 

All of the boys played outstandingly and their individual offensive statistics stood out in the New Zealand team and across the international board as well. Both the U20 Mens’ and Womens’ divisions were won by top seeds USA. A highlight of the tournament was the traditional ‘kit’ swapping day and the boys were lucky to keep their shirts on their backs as the Aotearoa New Zealand shirts are well sort after. The fact that they meet Australia (and possibly Japan) next month in Auckland meant that they had to keep their number one playing strip.

This was an amazing experience and the boys are very grateful for the support that they have received along the way to help them get to this point in their ‘Ultimate’ careers.