February 20th to 24th more than 2150 students attended NUG - Norwegian University Games which was hosted by NTNUI – Norwegian University of Science and Technology Sports Club in the city of Trondheim. The games included 20 different sports in 18 different sports arenas. 

Most of the participants arrived Trondheim during Wednesday and early Thursday morning the first matches started. The opening ceremony took place Thursday evening outside on a open square in the city centre and included welcoming speech from the Rector at the university, dancing show, music and a pyrotechnic show created by students at the university themselves. 

NUG really shows the growth in Norwegian University sports. It’s fantastic to see this event attracting so many participants only four months after the successful last NUG in Bergen. I assume there will be many Norwegian teams participating in EUC this year, says Marius Johannessen Secretary general at Norwegian Association of University Sports. 

For some of the sports like Volleyball, Handball, Table Tennis and Tennis this was the Norwegian University Championship and qualification to the coming EUC this year. The female volleyball team from the sports club at University of Bergen was the only team to defend their Norwegian University Champion title from last year. “We really enjoyed participating at EUG in Cordoba last year and were prepared to fight hard for qualifying to this years EUC Volleyball in Cyprus. The competition was tougher this year, so we are very satisfied winning the final match” said captain of the team, Elise Sandanger. 

One of the fast growing sports within Norwegian University sports is Lacrosse where 15 teams participated in this year’s championship. This year it was competed in Field Lacrosse and not box Lacrosse as in earlier tournaments. One of the players at University of Agder Lacrosse team, Per Arne Kvalvåg, has played lacrosse since he became a student 5 ago. “Lacrosse it a fantastic team sport with a lot of action and requires good physical condition” se says.

The organization committee wanted to include as many sports as possible. On this time of year there are some outdoor sports which are difficult to host in their normal environment. This resulted in a rowing competition on row machines, also including a relay, and a golf competition on Golf simulator. One of the most exciting events outside was the Cross Country Sprint which took place in the city centre on Friday attracting many spectators. 

Friday evening NSI hosted a reception for the organizing committee and the presidents of all participating University sport clubs. Friday afternoon a motivation seminar was offered, where former top alpine athlete Kjetil Andrè Aamodt was the keynote speaker. The closing ceremony took place Saturday evening where 2200 participated and NTNUI was rewarded the most winning sport club during the games. President of the organizing committee Tor Arne Skråmestø was very satisfied with the event. They have been planning this for over 18 months and had over 200 volunteers contributing in organizing the games. He was relieved to see that anything went so smoothly.