THE AUSTRALIAN Ultimate Championships could make a return to Ballarat in future years after the weekend’s successful tournament according to the championship’s national event officer.
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"We've proven ourselves as a club and as a city who can host these events."
- Aaron Stewart - Ballarat Ultimate president
From Friday through until Monday Morshead Park was one of three venues which was taken over by more than 600 athletes from around the country and New Zealand, alongside St Patrick’s College and Marty Busch Reserve.
National event officer John Hempel said while holding the event in a regional area did have drawbacks, the Ballarat Ultimate club had put on an exceptional event.
“The facilities especially at Morshead are immaculate, and we’ve been able to get to St Pat’s and Marty Busch and it’s been brilliant,” Hempel said. “Ideally we like to have all the fields in one location but it’s been great.”
While the 2016 event featured 28 teams from around Australasia, the 2017 championships will be four teams smaller. Hempel said the smaller format would better suit an application from Ballarat to hold the event in the future.
“The way they organised it and ran the tournament was really professional and they should be really proud of themselves,” Hempel said. “ I’d be happy to bring it back to Ballarat but it will just tend to depend on other bids.”
Ballarat Ultimate president Aaron Stewart confirmed the club had put its hand up to host the event again in 2017 after the weekend’s success.
"We've proven ourselves as a club and as a city who can host these events."
The men’s and women’s finals were played on the main oval at Morshead Park on Monday morning in front of a packed grandstand. Stewart said a large number of Ballarat residents had made the trek to the ground across the weekend to experience the sport.
While no Ballarat team qualified for the national tournament, a number of former Ballarat competitors featured in the six Victorian teams entered in the competition.
Stewart said holding the event provided an excellent opportunity for the club to attract fresh talent from around the region.
“Quite simply the more people you have playing the bigger the talent pool, so by having more people playing it increases the competition among the players.”
Sydney sides Colony Pillage and Colony Plunder faced off in the men’s final, with Plunder prevailing 15-7. In the women’s competition the Melbourne-based Ellipsis proved too strong for Queensland outfit Rogue Alliance, taking the trophy with a 15-9 win. Ellipsis had five players of Ballarat origin.
