Congratulations to IWGA Team of the Month: the Russian Women’s Flying Disc team! The team pulled out one of the most dramatic upsets in Beach Ultimate history when winning the gold medal at the WFDF 2017 World Championships of Beach Ultimate (WCBU) in Royan, France, last week. Russia defeated the USA squad 11-10 in an incredible come-from-behind victory after trailing 6-10, reeling off five unanswered points to snatch away the title.
The finals win was dramatic also as the Russian ladies had lost to Team USA in the first round of play 13-10. It was a payback too for a Russian loss to the USA in the finals of the WCBU two years earlier in Dubai by a score of 11-10.
The Russian gold medal was the only non-USA gold at WCBU 2017 in the seven divisions of the competition. The highest scoring player on the Russian team was Olga Podolskaia, who had 25 goals and 24 assists throughout the week-long championships. The Russian team has been training hard for the last nine months and had scrimmaged against the Russian men’s team in preparation for Royan. Their win in front of a capacity crowd of 5,000 will secure their place in disc sports history and is evidence of the great development work that is going on in the Russian Federation for Flying Disc.
At The World Games 2017, Flying Disc athletes compete in Mixed Ultimate on 21–23 July. The World Games is a multi-sport event staged every four years by the International World Games Association under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee. The 10th edition of The World Games will be held in Wroclaw, Poland, 20–30 July 2017. More than 3,000 athletes from 31 sports and 111 countries will take part in the Games.
