On Sunday, July 26, the European Universities Games – EUGames 2014 entered another day of full competition in futsal, table tennis and tennis, while handball athletes enjoyed their rest day. More sports are to start next week.

 

In Table Tennis the first final matches in some categories have already been played, and the competition in this sport will come to a close tomorrow, with medal-awarding ceremonies in all categories - teams, doubles and singles.

 

Although bridge was not on the core sports programme of the Games, the European Universities Bridge Trophy was held in Rotterdam as a side-event between July 24 and 26. The Trophy was organised by the European University Sports Association (EUSA) and the European Bridge League (EBL), as the continuation and the finals of the Online European Universities Bridge Trophy. The online competition hosted 33 European university teams last year over the period of two months, and the best 4 teams qualified for the Trophy.

 

The Polish team of the Gdansk University of Technology won the first place, followed by the Radboud University Nijmegen from the Netherlands on the second and Karel de Grote University College from Belgium on the third place. The awarding ceremony was moderated by Mr Gert Magerman, EUSA Bridge Technical Delegate and the medals were awarded by Mr Adam Roczek, EUSA President, Mr Yves Aubry, EBL President, Mr Daniel Sikkens, Chairman of the EUGames 20114 OC and Mr Matjaz Pecovnik, EUSA Secretary General.

 

Today the series of workshops continued with the masterclass on the opportunities sports offer for disabled athletes. The event was moderated by Mrs Rita van Driel from the National Paralympic Committee of the Netherlands, and the list of the panellists included Mr Ratko Kovacic, European Paralympic Committee (EPC) Vice-President; athlete Ms Barbara van Bergen; Ms Madelon Koetsier, the Chairlady of the Students Sports Association the Netherlands (SSN) and Mr Andrej Pisl, Communications and Projects Manager of the European University Sports Association.

 

The Memorandum of understanding between EUSA and EPC was introduced, and the specific actions planned to improve awareness, visibility of student athletes with impairments and offer them active participation in university sport events. A pan-European survey will be launched in the fall, and a special event for student athletes with disabilities will be organised in Rotterdam, powered by the EUGames 2014 in cooperation with EUSA and EPC.

 

For the future major events, the organisers of the European Universities Games Zagreb-Rijeka 2016 included two sports for students with disabilities (foreseen are swimming and table tennis), and the organisers of the European Universities Games Coimbra 2018 also plan to include students with disabilities in the sports events as well.

 

The EUGames 2014 organisers, as well as participating teams are sharing images and videos from the event, and here is a highlight from the first days of the event:

 

For more information, please see www.eugames2014.eu.