This weekend St. George’s Park welcomed more than 100 male and female players from the GB Ultimate U24s frisbee team for a two-day intensive training session.
Kicking off the side’s preparation for the World U24 Ultimate Championships in Perth 2018, the event saw players from across the UK come together for collective training including individual skills, formation and match play.
Following additional coaching in 2017, three teams will be selected from the pool of talent to represent the men, women and mixed divisions at the tournament, where 900 athletes from 23 countries competed in 2015.
St. George’s Park was chosen as the host due to it being one of very few sites offering full-size indoor pitch facilities to the sport. Its range of flexible indoor and outdoor options enabled the training to be split into two, with each of the groups experiencing both pitches across the weekend.
Si Hill, Chief Executive of UK Ultimate, said:
“Competition at the World Championships is fierce so it’s vital for training to start as early as possible. Our players are all self funded and have to travel from across the UK, meaning that this was one of very few collective sessions we were able to have before the tournament.
“Every second counts so having access to both indoor and outdoor facilities enables us to carry on training regardless of the UK’s unpredictable winter weather. This weekend was a great way to kick start things at a world-class facility before heading into 2017 and we saw some great skill coming from the team.
“We hope to return for additional training sessions in the New Year.”
Holly Murdoch, General Manager at St. George’s Park, said:
“Ultimate is a unique sport that continues to grow and foster huge levels of sporting talent. We are pleased that the GB U24s were able to commence their World Championship training with us, and that our facilities enabled them to train whatever the weather.
“UK Ultimate choosing to bring their training to the site is testament to our ability to cater for a variety of different needs and we hope that it has contributed to what we hope will be a very successful championship for them.”
