On the 24th of April, the 38th edition of the Batavierenrace, the world’s largest relay race, took place in the Netherlands. More than 7,700 students ran in teams of 25 students from the city of Nijmegen to the city of Enschede during this weekend. The route stretches out over 175 km through Germany and a beautiful part of the Netherlands.

This year, 321 teams appeared at the start in Nijmegen. This is only four teams less than three years ago, when the record ‘world’s largest relay race’ was set with 325 teams (with a total of 7,841 students) participating. The organizing committee looks back at a very successful event, which was blessed with fantastic weather. The 80 permanent employees, 600 volunteers and 150 motorcyclists had an essential part in making the 38th Batavierenrace the greatest Dutch student event of the year.

 

In the top league of the Batavierenrace, the University competition, where all the Dutch University cities compete against each other for the title of ‘Fastest university of the Netherlands’, the Radboud University of Nijmegen grabbed the first place. The Nijmegen team completed the distance of 177 km within 10 hours, 42 minutes and 13 seconds. With that result, they took over the University competition Cup from the University of Groningen. After three years of victory in a row, that University finished second this year, just one minute behind the team from Nijmegen. The University of Twente finished on the third place.

International teams came from Germany, Slovenia, Hungary, Norway, UK and runners from much more countries where present. In the coming years, the Batavierenrace hopes to expand the amount of international participants and welcome teams from other European countries.

 

To conclude the race, around thirteen thousand visitors celebrated the successful completion at the ‘Batavierenparty’, one of the biggest student parties of Europe. The organizers hope to welcome you next year on the 7th of May at the 39th Batavierenrace!

Official results and photos are available at the Batavierenrace official website: http://www.batavierenrace.nl