Former resident competes at Worlds

SANDPOINT — While much of the world has been rapt watching World Cup soccer recently, another big tournament that also happens every four years was taking place in Prague, Czechoslovakia.

More than 3,000 Ultimate Frisbee players, from 37 countries, competed the past two weeks in the World Club Championships. Among the competitors was former Sandpoint resident and athlete Michelle Bartlett, who played on the Thundering Herd, a coed team from Great Britain.

Bartlett, 34, lived in London and worked for Xerox for two years before relocating to Portland, Oregon. Having played in past European championships, she decided to reunite with some of her former teammates for the worlds. The sport of Ultimate continues to increase in popularity, and the two-week tournament drew most of the top players in the world, who competed in four divisions: Open, women’s, mixed and masters.

“We were happy with the tournament in general. The level of play was very high and the teams we matched up against were quite skilled, as well as spirited,” said Bartlett, whose father Brian Bartlett still resides in Sandpoint. “We won half our games and had a great time playing hard for each and every point.”

Bartlett plays the position of offensive cutter in the running-intensive sport, which is played by teams of seven advancing the disc on a 100 yard field. The Thundering Herd came into the tournament seeded 28th out of 40 teams, and promptly finished 27th.

She says the spirit of the game is what she loves most about Ultimate, a non-refereed non-contact sport where competitors play fair and honestly.

“Everyone assumes that no one would commit a foul on purpose, and if one occurs the game is restarted in a way to try and remedy the play,” described Bartlett, adding that this year the tournament didn’t even include observers, akin to court monitors at Hoopfest. “I never saw the need for them at this tournament. Even in the finals, every game was played fairly and spiritedly, yet with incredible athleticism and finesse.”