Robert McLeod, an ultimate frisbee player and coach from Calgary will be travelling to Fort Collins, Colorado on July 18 to compete in the 2011 WFDF World Flying Disc Championships.
McLeod, who has been throwing frisbees for 11 years, is one of two Canadians travelling to Colorado to compete. This will be his first time competing in a Flying Disc event, and this being the World Championships, an event held every four years.
“Ultimate Rob” says he hopes to break a few world records when he competes next week in Fort Collins. Photo: Hunter-Images
He has been playing ultimate frisbee for 10 years and said that what really drew him to the sport was the frisbee.
“Unlike a ball, when you throw a frisbee, it isn’t a slave to gravity and depending on the angle of release, you can do pretty much whatever you want with the disc.”
McLeod will be competing in 6 events – distance, accuracy, discathon, disc golf, maximum time aloft and throw-run-catch.
“One of my goals is to bring awareness to disc sports – a frisbee is truly the best throwing/flying object of any sport,” he said.
Disc sports hasn’t caught on in Calgary just yet, according to McLeod.
“We play disc golf in Calgary and there are disc golf tournaments, but none of the other events. As far as I know I’m the only one doing the rest in Calgary. As for the world’s, I’m one of only two canadians going,” he said.
The frisbee really is amazing – the world record in the distance event is 250m (two and a half football fields), says McLeod. While the Calgary athlete would love to set a world record, is really looking forward to the competition, meeting legends from the sport and just soaking up the experience.
“I hope to place in a few of the events. In disc golf I will be competing against pros, so not sure there, but in distance, maximum time aloft and throw run catch, my goal is to win a medal and perhaps even set a world record,” he said. “But I think just finishing top three would be awesome.”
He will be bringing his video camera because, as he says, “the only videos of the events available online aren’t very good quality and don’t give justice to how exciting this sport is.”
Source: http://beaconnews.ca/calgary/2011/07/calgarian-off-to-compete-in-colorado-in-world-frisbee-championships/