UAE’s Beach Ultimate team aims to rise through the world ranks

The UAE will be looking to spring a few surprises when they take on the world’s best at the 2015 world championships of Beach Ultimate in Dubai next week.

The sport is a mix of football, basketball and American football, played with a frisbee. Picture supplied
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Dubai // The UAE will be looking to spring a few surprises when they take on the world’s best at the 2015 world championships of Beach Ultimate in Dubai next week.

The hosts have four teams in the tournament, which will be held at the JBR beach from Sunday to March 13 with 71 teams and more than 1,100 players from 25 countries taking part over six days.

The UAE had only one team in the last world championships, which took place in Italy in 2011, and they finished 19th among 22 teams in the mixed division.

This time they are seeded No 17 among 18 teams in the mixed division, No 13 among 16 teams in the open division, No 6 in the seven-team women’s division and No9 in the grandmasters section.

“We are seeded third from the bottom,” said Adna Muliawan, the UAE open team co-captain. “So our target is to finish better than that.

“This is the highest level of competition, but we have identified a couple of winnable games we are going to target.

“We have been practising once a week since September and now we are really excited about the start. We will try our best.”

Beach ultimate is a combination of football, American football and basketball, but played with a flying disc (Frisbee) on a court or a field with an end zone at each end.

The objective is to catch the disc in the end zone of the opponent to make a point.

Each team consists of five players on the field, but they are allowed unlimited substitutions after each point is scored.

arizvi@thenational.ae

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