Women’s roller derby competition coming to Columbia convention center

An international roller derby playoff that will include a local team comes to Columbia next month.

The capital city’s QuadSquad will compete the weekend of Sept. 9 - 11 with teams from parts of the nation as well as from Sweden and the United Kingdom for the chance to play for the international championship in November in Portland, Ore., it was announced Monday.

Co-sponsored by the Columbia Regional Sports Council and the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, the playoff will be held at the city’s Metropolitan Convention Center. Admission will cost between $15 and $65 for the three-day event.

Columbia’s team, the QuadSquad, was organized in 2007 and has held its bouts at the Jamil Temple in St. Andrews as well as at Skate Station USA in Oak Grove, said Scott Powers, director of Columbia’s sports council, which works to attract tournaments and other sporting events to the capital city area.

The Columbia team will compete in September on a flat concrete track with teams from Portland, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Denver, Ann Arbor, Mich., Santa Cruz, Calif., Malmo, Sweden and Oldham, England, according to a news release.

The top three teams from each district in the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association will travel to Portland for international championship.

For ticket information, go to http://www.wftda.com/tournaments/2016/columbia.