101 athletes – the University of Tasmania’s largest team ever – will leave this week to compete at the UniSport Nationals on the Gold Coast.
The University of Tasmania Sport Operations Manager, Anthony Jusup, said the national games provided a terrific opportunity for students to bond through sport and also to test themselves at a highly competitive level.
“This is such an exciting time for sport at the University. We are really proud to be sending such a large and highly motivated team of athletes, with our sights set high.”
The University of Tasmania is the defending champion in squash and sailing, and also holds the national title in futsal from a separate tournament. Last year the team finished 8th on the overall UniGames table, after a previous best of 29th.
Mr Jusup said the team also took out last year’s Southern per capita championship and will be going hard to repeat this success.
Student athletes will compete in one of 10 sporting categories, with the University competing in water polo, soccer, judo and ultimate frisbee for the first time. The judo team includes Lisa Svenby, who is studying architecture on exchange from Malmo University in Sweden. Lisa is a member of the Swedish national judo team.
Other categories featuring University of Tasmania students this year include rowing, hockey, netball and basketball.
Last year 87 University of Tasmania students competed and the team finished 8th out of 42 universities. This year they will be thrashing it out over seven days to try to improve that result when 43 Australian universities go head to head from September 23-29.
More details about the competition and results can be found on the UniSport Nationals website.
Visit the UniSport web page for more information on sport at the University of Tasmania.
Caption: Team members Jordan Walker (basketball), Eilidh Stewart (netball), Declan Taylor (soccer), Lisa Svenby (judo) and Liam McLaren (hockey). Photo: Peter W. Allen
Media contact: Miranda Harman 0427 199 562
Information released by:
Communications Office
University of Tasmania
Communications.Office@utas.edu.au
Twitter.com/utas_