Singapore will send its largest ever frisbee contingent to the World Ultimate and Guts Championship (WUGC) in London this month. For the first time, 94 players from the Republic will participate in four different categories at the June 18-25 event - men's and women's (22), mixed (27) and men's masters (23).
Having started with 100 members in 2000, the Ultimate Players Association (Singapore), or UPA(S), now has about 900 members.
The Singapore men's, women's and mixed seven-player ultimate sides are jointly ranked 19th in the world and third in Asia, behind Japan and the Philippines. National captains Timothy Teo and Rachel Boey aim to lift that at the WUGC.
"We want to improve our seeding. We hope to be in the top three Asia-Oceanic teams. There are 31 teams this time and finishing in the top half will be a good target," said men's captain Teo. The 26-year-old physical education teacher was also part of the men's team that finished 17th out of 19 sides at the 2012 WUGC.
Women's captain Boey said: "The only thing that we want to do there is better our seeding. (The tournament) is a once-every-four-years affair and I think everyone will just give it their all."
The effort of the UPA(S) is something that MP for West Coast GRC S. Iswaran praised yesterday, when he visited the teams during their combined training at West Coast Park.
Mr Iswaran, who is also the Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry), said: "It's remarkable because a lot of it has been self-driven and it's good for them to muster their enthusiasm, and also the resources and energy and take it to the international level."
UPA(S) president Ang Ziwei said it is hoping to become a National Sports Association (NSA) soon, and it hopes to submit the necessary application in September.
"The hard part is having no place to play, so hopefully with an NSA status we will have a home ground, and it will matter for our school players because they will be recognised for their efforts in ultimate on their school records," said Ang.
Correction note: An earlier version of this story spelled "muster" as "master". We are sorry for the error.
