The University of Limerick is to host not one but two World Championships this summer.
It has been announced that the World Masters Ultimate Frisbee Championship will take place on the campus over eight days from Saturday, June 25th to Saturday, July 2nd.
Up to 2,000 athletes from around the world will travel to Limerick to compete in tournaments that range from Master over the age of 30 all the way to Ultimate Grand Master for those aged over 45 for women and 47 for men.
The bid was won by a collaboration between Siege Events, the Shannon Region Conference and Sports Bureau, Fáilte Ireland, Limerick City and County Councils and UL. Studies suggest winning the right to host the tournament could be worth up to €1.5 million in economic value for the region.
Siege Events is led by Barry Walsh and Liam Grant who established the business as players of the sport and hosted an event in Limerick last summer. Walsh is a marketing manager with HSBC while Grant is a councillor on Clare County Council and a freelance broadcaster.
Limerick won the bid at the end of 2021 and the event will now ait alongside the World U21 Lacrosse Championships and Festival that will take place on the University Campus between the 10th and 20th of August this summer.
“I am delighted with the announcement that the University of Limerick will host the WFDF World Masters Ultimate Club Championships in June 2022,” said David Ward of the UL Conference and Sports Campus.
“The sport of Ultimate is no stranger to Limerick, with the annual Siege of Limerick, and recently, the All-Ireland Finals taking place at UL Sport.”
“The local organising committee know what UL and Limerick have to offer and have underpinned that confidence in bringing the World Championships here. Now the International Ultimate Community will get to experience the wonderful Limerick welcome over eight days, in what is a significant Sports Tourism boost to Limerick and the wider Shannon Region.”
Ultimate Frisbee is a team sport played on a football pitch with two endzones with ‘goals’ scored by catching the frisbee while in the end zone.
The Irish Women’s Team won the European Championship in Hungary in 2019. The sport is governed here in Ireland by the Irish Flying Disc Association.
The World Junior Ultimate Championships were previously held here in Dublin in 2012.
Sport for Business Perspective
We can only hope that international travel will be back at full tilt for the summer and it is great that Limerick has had the imagination and the willing organisers to not only bid for but win these two World Championship events in sports that we have traditionally not been a huge part of in Ireland
“A powerful and influential network of information and collaboration”
Download our latest membership brochure here.
Sport for Business Partners
