ULTIMATE FRISBEE is not yet an Olympic event—but the spirit in which it is played is very much in line with the Olympic ideal and Montrose student John Dixon is one of Scotland’s top players.

He is training several hours a day in preparation for the first World Beach Ultimate Frisbee Championship in Portugal next week.

John (20), a senior honours geography student at Aberdeen University, is vice-captain of the Scottish squad who will face teams from 14 other countries.

John took up the sport when he went to Aberdeen, who won the British University Outdoor Championships recently.

“It is a fast, physical and tactical sport,” said John, whose team do not expect to return as champions from Portugal as the favourites are the US, Canada and Brazil.

“It is all about fun and good sportsmanship. It is self-refereed and relies on what they call the spirit of the game.”

The sport is growing in popularity with an established British league of around 50 teams with squads that compile male and female players.

Teams of seven play within a grass area roughly the size of a football pitch for 90 minutes and take on defensive or offensive roles with end zones for scoring, similar to American gridiron football. Beach frisbee is an adaptation played with five-a-side on a smaller pitch.

The origins of frisbee go back to the post-civil war United States, when students at Yale University started the craze of throwing empty pie and cookie tins after they had consumed the contents from the Frisbie Pie Company.