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Canadian Ultimate Championships also known as CUC is an annual Ultimate Frisbee tournament organised by Ultimate Canada and the player association of the city where the championships are held.
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History of ultimate and disc sports in Canada
In Canada, organized disc sports began in the early 1970s, with promotional efforts from Irwin Toy, the Canadian Open Frisbee Championships (1972–85), the Vancouver Open Frisbee Championships (1974-77) and professionals using Frisbee show tours to perform at universities, fairs and sporting events. Disc sports such as freestyle, double disc court, guts, disc ultimate and disc golf became this sports first events. Two sports, the team sport of disc ultimate and disc golf are very popular worldwide and are now being played semi-professionally. The World Flying Disc Federation, Professional Disc Golf Association, Freestyle Players Association are the official rules and sanctioning organizations for flying disc sports worldwide. Ultimate Canada is the official rules and sanctioning organization for ultimate in Canada.
Ultimate is a team sport played with a flying disc. The object of the game is to score points by passing the disc to members of your own team, on a rectangular field,120 yards (110m) by 40 yards (37m), until you have successfully completed a pass to a team member in the opposing teams end zone. In the 1970s, Ken Westerfield introduced disc ultimate along with other disc sports North of the 49th parallel at the Canadian Open Frisbee Championships and the Vancouver Open Frisbee Championships (1974-1976). Also in 1980, along with Chris Lowcock, created the Toronto Ultimate League (Club).
The first Canadian Ultimate Championships (CUC) were held for the open division in Ottawa in 1987, produced by Marcus Brady and Brian Guthrie. OCUA subsequently hosted the 1993, 1999, 2002 and 2011 Canadian Ultimate Championships.
Canada has been ranked number one in the Ultimate World Rankings several times since 1998 in all the Ultimate Divisions (including Open and Women's) according to the World Flying Disc Federation.
In 2013, as a founding partner, the Toronto Ultimate Club presented Canada's first semi-professional ultimate team, the Toronto Rush. to the American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL). In their first season they went undefeated 18-0 and won the AUDL championships. The American Ultimate Disc League and Major League Ultimate (MLU) are the first semi-professional ultimate leagues.
Upcoming Championships
The 31st championships, CUC 2017, will be held in Ottawa, Ontario, in August 2017.
In 2016 the Canadian Ultimate Championship series restructured with the introduction of a standalone mixed championship. CUC 2017 Mixed will take place in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in August 2017.