Kerala Women's team wins Spirit Championship on Ultimate frisbee tournament debut

The Hindu

20-05-2025

'It was part of my personality that I hated running. I was very vocal about it too. However, the fact that I was running behind a frisbee made it joyful,' says Theertha Menon. She is one of the two spirit captains of the 19-member Kerala Ultimate Frisbee women's team that competed in the fourth edition of the Bharat Trophy, held in Bengaluru last week. The team won the Spirit Championship title for upholding the spirit of the game despite a group-stage exit from the tournament.
This was the first time a Kerala women's team participated in a tournament. 'It is new for Kerala, with most of them having never played a women's tournament at a competitive level while many players from other states have participated in women's tournaments at least at club level,' says Smithi Manickam, head coach. She has represented the country internationally and is also the head coach of the Indian Masters Women's Beach Team, preparing for the World Beach Ultimate Championships in November.
The non-contact and self-refereed sport is played on grass or sand. Each team has seven players on grass and five on sand. For a mixed-gendered game, a ratio of 4:3 and 3:2, both favouring men, is applied to grass and sand, respectively. The teams pass the frisbee from one end of the field to the other by tossing it, and players must catch it at the other end to get points. The players themselves are held accountable for sticking to the rules.
An inclusive space
The game has gained traction in the state over the past few years. The Kerala women's squad, led by captains Ahila SA and Dan Maria Danty, consists of research assistants, architects, lawyers, filmmakers and so on. Eva Antony, another spirit captain of the team, is a project associate at a private company.
Many women have come forward to find the field to be an inclusive space. 'I started playing Ultimate two years ago in Kochi on a turf when a friend asked me to join her,' says Dan, who runs a branding business. She adds, 'I participated in basketball tournaments in school and college. But, for women, after a certain age, you can't play or have teams and tournaments. It was that background that gave me the courage to go ahead and try another sport.'
Niveditha S Nambiar, 20, says, 'I studied in a school where boys and girls were not allowed to play together. This meant that girls would technically have no space to play. While boys played football in the parking lot/playground, girls played snakes and ladders or carroms. The sports day was the one day we would have something for ourselves.'
Niveditha from Thiruvananthapuram discovered the sport during the pandemic when she realised that she had gained some extra weight. An acquaintance mentioned Trivandrum Ultimate, founded by Benoy Stephen to her. She joined the group and attended tournaments with them but had to leave for Hyderabad for college. She started playing there too.
Theertha, a 33-year-old associate director in the Malayalam film industry, remembers the exact day she played frisbee for the first time, when her friend texted her on Instagram in September 2024. 'I went to play, and I haven't experienced anything like that until then. I had never played a sport before that, and I didn't know what it meant to be a part of a team,' says Theertha, who has worked on movies such as Helen, Anandam, Victoria and so on.
Girl power
The players point out that the women's category gives them more opportunity to upskill. 'When you play a mixed tournament, what often happens is that you are not pushed to your limits. For instance, I might be able to do a long throw, but since it is a competition, my teammates come close. They don't do it intentionally. But with women, everyone is pushed equally to try new things,' says Niveditha.
'It makes a big difference in terms of visibility, too. Sometimes, even when you do everything right on the field, you are not seen by your teammates. All that changes when you have female teammates. Having a female coach makes a huge difference too,' she adds.
Eva says, 'Moreover, there is this sense of sisterhood among the people around you. It's a different level of comfort while playing the sport with women.'