The 2024 World Ultimate Championships. One of the reasons I started writing these blogs to begin with. But yet, I don't know what to write about. So much happened over the course of the campaign and yet it was all over in a blur.
I'll start with the one moment everyone else remembers.
We had a slow start to the match, our offensive line had struggled to convert cleanly and our defense hadn't had many opportunities to get on the field and when we did get on the field we didn't convert the chances we got. So when I saw Ben Waller get a great block and I was the person to pick up the disc I felt that I had to look for something. As I am bending down to collect the rolling disc I see Charles Paterson in the middle of the field with so much space deep in front of him and a defender that hadn't yet recognised that we were on the attack. Now, if it wasn't for having thrown this exact throw before, in the same conditions, to the same player, from the same spot on the field; there would be no shot I take this option in the opening match at worlds.
However all those criteria did line up and the look came to mind so naturally. Locked in flow state I release the disc above my head, sending the plastic on a 60 meter journey to the opposition endzone. As the disc leaves my hand my first thought was, "there were so many easy shots to open players, what have I done?" but then I realise that the release is good, Charles is open and the hammer is on track. I don't have a good view of catch from where I am standing but I see Charles hit the ground horizontally and hear the crowd lose their minds. I sprint down and celebrate with the team.
It wasn't until that evening where the clip goes viral that I realise that Charles made the craziest catch ever to save my throw and reinforced that I really can throw whatever as long as its in the field and Charles will reel it down.
The whole of that first showcase match was such a great experience, yes we lost, but as New Zealand we got to show the rest of the Ultimate world we are here to play.
The week prior we had played 3 warmup matches against GB, China and Chinese Taipei. We won our latter games against China and Chinese Taipei comfortably and they gave the squad some confidence leading into the week. Our first match though was against Great Britain, we got kinda smoked. We couldn't complete passes and although our defense was generating turn after turn we were struggling to convert any break chances. My first discovery of worlds was here. Drink more electrolytes, otherwise you'll end up lying on the ground in the 35 degree heat just like I was during this match.
We've already spoken about the first match against aussie, a loss but we knew we had lots more tournament to play.
We were in Pool C - the designated pool of death for the open division. Our second match was up against the second seed in the pool and one we had to win if we wanted to have a easy run through to the quarter finals.
Against Germany there were many long points, back and forths between players and some great plays but in the end we wound up losing more that just the match by a narrow margin. We also lost our leader and captain Lauchlan Robertson early in the game to a concussion. Losing Lauch was a big hit to our team as the roles he played both on and off the field had to be filtered down through the squad. It wasn't until later in the week he felt up to coming to the fields again and his presence was positively felt upon return.
Our last pool play game and then all of power pools went rather swimmingly:
- 15-8 vs Singapore
- 15-7 vs Chinese Taipei
- 15-3 vs PRC
- 15-8 vs Austria
After that last match against Austria we looked across the grounds and saw Columbia take the win against a Japan side missing their top players. This result meant that we were up next to play Japan in the pre-quarters. Our shot at making the top 8.
Last time we were on the #1 field was what felt like weeks ago, but in fact was only 4 days ago in the opener against Australia. This time it is against Japan.
Going in to our Japan game was very exciting, getting the chance to match up against a team with a style that is quite independent amongst other top nations. The match was also our shot at the top 8. A feat that a New Zealand opens team hasn't managed in a long time.
Footage is on Ultiworld if you want to go give it a watch.
We start the game off slowly, extra slowly. The second point takes over ten minutes and standing on the sideline watching our team play what all things considered was pretty okay offence and great defence. Unfortunately we had a case of the dropsies which after going down 4-1 was hard to fight back from. We tried our best, I dived into a handler's chest, in the end we were put to rest. 15-12. Japan W.
This was the end of our ambitious run at trying to make it to the top 8
The rest of the tournament was business as usual, with 3 wins to take out 9th place; over Hong Kong, Italy and then France. I have two highlights from these last few matches. Firstly against Italy we had one point where we had forced them back to their own baseline with an arrowhead zone and we had about 5 throws in a row where people made bids at a callahan. We didn't get a callahan in that point but in the end but we did get two others that game, one by Tony Clark and I snagged one as well. The second highlight for me was two points in a row I threw a flick huck to a deep cutter out of a 1-4-2, an offense I am quite undecided about, and it felt as though we should have been been doing that the whole time.
Out the other side now and this blog a couple of months late to being published, my passion for ultimate has definitely been reconfirmed and I am super excited for the future of NZ Ultimate. With our womens team coming 6th and the mixed team underperforming but showing promise I know that come the next international event we will be there to compete with new vigour.
Privileged to be able to call you my teammate and coach, super excited to watch you play your best ultimate! Was also amazing to watch you perform on such a big stage🙌