The 24th Summer Universiade, which took place from August 8 to 18 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand, officially concluded yesterday with the closing ceremony. 9006 participants, representing over 6000 athletes from 152 countries, took part at this world's largest student sport games. 18 sports were offered this year - beside thirteen compulsory ones (athletics, basketball, diving, fencing, football, gymnastics artistic, gymnastics rhythmic, judo, swimming, table tennis, tennis, volleyball and water polo), five optional sports were offered (badminton, golf, shooting, softball and taekwondo).

The games were organised under the patronage of International University Sport Federation FISU, and had 14 major sponsors and partners. The history of the games reach back to 1923 when the World Student Games were held in Paris, France, and the "Universiade" as such started in 1959 in Turin, Italy.

Most of EUSA members also participated at the Universiade with their national teams. The most successful of EUSA members was Russian Federation which won 92 medals altogether (ranking in Second place right after China), and there were 8 others among top 20 countries: Ukraine (66 medals), Germany (25 medals), Italy (21), Belarus (13), Turkey (10), Austria (8), Poland (16), Hungary (6). Several other members were also successful, so congratulations to all.

It might also be interesting that in the year of doping scandals, over 500 samples were taken, and none came back positive, which proves that education, authenticity and devotion to sports still predominate in the field of university sport.

For more information about the 2007 Summer Universiade, please visit http://www.bangkok2007.com or http://www.fisu.net.