Players at the sixth Vietnam Hat Ultimate Frisbee tournament take a break from the heat and competition

The team sport of Ultimate Frisbee made another step forward in its march of popularity across Asia with last weekend’s Vietnam Hat Tournament in Ho Chi Minh City.

“I can see over the years that ultimate has become more localized,” said one of the tournament organizers Nguyen Bich Thuy.

Thuy said it was the first time in the Vietnam Hat’s history that the organizing committee was dominated by locals.

Daniel Stean, a 36-year-old flower exporter who traveled here for the tournament from Perth, Australia said, “From last year I’ve seen a lot of local players that have developed and the club is still bringing new players in.”

“I saw the Vudoo team [Vietnam’s club team] in Singapore and the Philippines – there are a lot of familiar faces.”

Thinh Nguyen, 20, a Vietnamese student currently studying management in Singapore, flew home for the tournament. He has been playing for 18 months.

“It’s awesome. The community is very strong with the seniors helping out and encouraging the novices to play.”

In the “never stop running” game of Ultimate Frisbee, mixed teams vie on grass fields to possess a flying disc and send it down field to be caught in an end zone to score. It requires high levels of fitness and agility and because teams trust the “ultimate spirit” of fairness and goodwill, it is played without an umpire.

Players flew in from Australia, England, the US, Japan, Austria, Timor Leste, Thailand, Cambodia, the Middle East, the Philippines, Singapore and China to join the strong local contingent – many of them university students from RMIT, which sponsored the event by supplying the fields.

Hat tournaments, as opposed to club tournaments, are great cultural exchange events as participants from anywhere and everywhere can sign up from home and be put into teams when they arrive for registration.

Expats from the West or the East who are living in countries throughout Asia compete, party and keep in contact with each other by doing the Asian tournament circuit – to many it’s not just a sport it’s a family. The same goes for local players who make friends here and internationally.

Dan Axon, 47, a veteran player from North Carolina who has been working in Thailand as a computer programmer for the last three years said, “I’ve never quit playing since 1981. The Vietnam Hat is my favorite tournament in Asia.”

“It’s a great time to be in Asia with ultimate because it is really starting to come into its own. It’s a great spirit.”

John Damiani, known as JD, a cabinet maker from Perth with 23 years ultimate experience said, “I probably wouldn’t have come to Vietnam if it wasn’t for Ultimate. There are a lot of Asian communities I come to because of Ultimate.”

“It opens it up for everyone… I just like the vibe in Vietnam, it’s energetic, busy, the overall friendliness.”

It was Ginger Wong’s first tournament outside her own country in the US. The Californian, with six years of ultimate under her belt, flew to Vietnam for the weekend purely to play at the Hat.

“It’s really interesting to play outside the circle I normally play with. I feel sheltered in California and it’s amazing to see all the interesting things that people are doing with their lives here. I think I will spend more money on plane tickets.”

She said she is considering moving to Asia but wouldn’t move anywhere there wasn’t ultimate.

For Truong Nguyen Vu, known as Vu Tattoo by his ultimate Frisbee team mates in HCMC, and who sponsored the tournament by supplying the jerseys from his ultimate clothing label Zone said, “Ultimate is not about competition, it’s about spirit and the young players here learned a lot about spirit from the veteran players.”

Reported by Michael Smith