World Flying Disc Federation adopts new age division names for youth championships beginning in 2016

In Official Communication, Press Release * Official Communication by WFDF

The World Flying Disc Federation is pleased to announce that it has adopted new division names for youth Ultimate championships. Beginning in 2016, the former “Under 23” age category will be designated as the “Under 24” division and the former Juniors “Under 19” age category will be designated as the “Under 20” division.  While the actual age limits are not changing, this revision of nomenclature was undertaken to try to minimize confusion about the age guidelines.

The rules have always stated that that a player could turn 23 or 19 in the calendar year of the respective event and still qualify. The designation of “Under 23” or “Under 19” led to entry mistakes when it came to age category definitions and the WFDF Youth in Sport Committee thus had requested a clarification in the name which was taken up by the WFDF Ultimate Committee. “It should be underlined that this is a change in the name of the division only but is not a change in the rules around who can and cannot play,” stated Ultimate Committee Chair Brian Gisel. “We expect that this will clarify that no athlete at a WFDF Under 24 World Championship will be 24 years of age, and no player at a WFDF Under 20 World Championship will be 20 years of age.”

WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch added that “this also puts us in line with the age designations of other large sporting organizations such as FIFA (Football), FIVB (Volleyball), IHF (Handball), and also FIBA (Basketball, for Continental events). All of them specify the guideline that a player must be under the specified age when competing at the event.”

This change will not affect the WFDF 2015 Under 23 World Ultimate Championship being held in London this summer.  It will be implemented for the WFDF 2017 World Under 24 Championships and the WFDF 2016 World Junior (Under 20) Ultimate Championships (WJUC).