New Zealand’s fast-growing ultimate frisbee community is celebrating its best-ever U20 results at the recent 2026 World Junior Ultimate Champs (WJUC) in Logroño, Spain.

For eight days in July, 41 young Kiwi players from Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, New Plymouth, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin represented New Zealand, competing against 1,200 players in 47 national teams from 26 countries.

The NZ U20 men, Katipō, who competed in the open division, made history by finishing in 4th place out of 19 countries and becoming the first NZ U20 team to make the semi-finals at a World Junior Ultimate Championship event. They played ten games against Canada, Singapore, Sweden, the Netherlands, Czechia, Italy, USA and Japan. After the power-pool competition, Katipō faced the top-qualifier of the other power pool, Italy, and gave a huge effort in extreme Spanish heat to win on ‘universe’ point, 9-8, to make the semifinals. 

“Seeded #8 after a ninth-place finish at the World Junior Ultimate Champs in 2024, this is the best result since NZ first competed at WJUC in 2014,” says Katipō manager Mike Sheridan.

The U20 women’s team, Kāhu, narrowly missed out on the quarter-finals in a three-way tie in their pool, but was honoured to win the Spirit of the Game Award. Through playing a number of very competitive games and maintaining a huge respect for their opposition as well as a willingness to listen and engage with the opposing players to showcase how self-refereeing can work, Kāhu was recognised at the medal ceremony as the champions of Spirit of the Game.  Despite their disappointment in not making the top-8 bracket, the team rallied to win their remaining games to clinch 9th place out of 14 countries.

In scoring ‘Spirit of the Game’, each team marks their opposition after each game across five categories - Rules Knowledge and Use, Fouls and Body Contact, Fair-Mindedness, Positive Attitude, and Self Control and Communication.   An average score of 10 is expected after a good, competitive game, with teams able to score their opposition as high as 20.  Kāhu won with an average of 11.

“While winning the game is always the goal, it’s a huge honour to be recognised for ‘best spirit’ on and off the field”, said Kahu’s co-coach, Iain Stewart.

Katipō also placed highly in Spirit - ranked #5 across the tournament. “Being recognised by our opponents for our spirit continues New Zealand’s reputation among national teams from all over the world as being willing to play hard but fair”, Stewart adds.

“For a small country we punch well above our weight. Unlike teams across Europe, we don’t get the chance to regularly play against other national teams, so turning up at the junior world champs and having our talents and spirit recognised are massive achievements and something to celebrate. All of the players should feel really proud of what they’ve achieved both personally and for NZ on the world-stage.”  

Among those helping New Zealand achieve its best-ever U20 results were Wellington secondary school students selected to represent their country on the world stage. Hutt Valley High School's James Bowen, Sam Worsley, Belinda Chapman, Lucy Hoffman, Casey Hurley, Bianca Philip and Nynke Turner, along with Onslow College's Ruby McKenzie and Ella Young, proudly wore the silver fern in Spain.

Ultimate (or ‘Ultimate Frisbee’) is a self-refereed team sport that sees players discussing and acting on calls from opposing players before resuming play. At the world junior champs, official game advisors were available to help players reach an agreement to proceed. A number of the games were livestreamed and can be watched on Ultiworld (behind a paywall) with the NZ women’s team vs Czechia game available for free on YouTube.  The 2028 WJUC will be held in Ottawa, Canada.

For further information:

Iain Stewart - New Zealand Ultimate

021 02442087

nzu.eo@ultimate.org.nz
 

In New Zealand ultimate frisbee is supported by national sports organisation New Zealand Ultimate.

Article added: Wednesday 19 August 2026