WUGC Day 0, Saturday 7th July

Today was the first official day of the World Ultimate and Guts Championship (WUGC2012).  It was launched by numerous politicians and, notably, Miss Japan.  We were entertained by fan dancers, percussionists with giant drums and each country was represented by a school child bearing our flag – a much more efficient and endearing method than each athlete walking out, but without the same buzz.

The very first games in the Open, Women’s and Mixed divisions followed, with Australia playing Japan in the Women’s match.  A really tough match with turns from both sides, and blocks being generated by the Aussies.  The confidence of the Aussie Firetails seemed to peak and trough, which, together with some unfortunate drops, saw them finish down 17-10.

My team, the Women’s Masters, known as the Flying Foxes (or I’d like to think ‘affectionately’ as “the old bats”), played a warmup match versus Great Britain prior to the opening ceremony (Lee and I made a mad dash from Kyoto to the field via 3 trains and a bus).  It started with torrential rain, moved through high wind and in the final stages, sunshine – all in 45 minutes.  Both sides worked out some of their nerves with some early turns, particularly drops.  GB’s strengths were their inside-out break throws and hard man defense.  The Foxes used this as a great opportunity to meet each other (3 of our players are based in 3 different countries outside Australia) and to run through our strategies.  We were lucky to come through with the win 8-5.