Excitement is building at World University Games

Excitement is building at World University Games

Press Release for 14th August 2011 4pm

Excitement is building in the village with all 52 New Zealand athletes and 22 support staff now in Shenzhen, China for the opening ceremony last night.

Alayna Carter, Executive Director at University Sport commented that “Shenzhen has really pulled out all of the stops for the 9000 athletes attending the 26th summer university games”.

The NZ team at has had a solid start on the first official day of competition which started on Saturday 13th August. The day started early for Open Water swimmer Jonathan Pullon (Auckland Uni), coming 13th in the race with a field of 44 swimmers.

Midday saw the Men’s Basketball Team made up of David Clarke (Oregon Institute of Technology), Nick Barrow (Auckland Uni), Samuel Dempster (Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology), Joshua Bloxham (Massey Uni), Marco Alexander (Massey), Rory Fannon (Utah), Jordan Mills (VUW), Dion Prewster (Austin), Justin Richard Edwards, Coached by Dean Vickerman and managed by Chris Millbank, take on Russia – the group favourites in their first match of the tournament. Strong defence in the first half meant the kiwis were only down 34-25, but with some injury niggles and against a full 12man 6foot plus Russian team, New Zealand went down fighting to an eventual 78-42 loss. This was despite some instrumental ‘and 1’s’ by Marco Alexander throughout the game but particularly in the first half, capitalising on the shot when he got fouled and made the free throw to gain 3 points each time.

The lone cyclist in the team, Brad Evans (Otago Uni) crashed out of the 160km road race in less than 13k. Though not seriously injured, Brad was unable to continue in the race suffering grazes and abrasions, after a collision with a Japanese rider early in the race. Brad is looking forward to the track cycling events, which he competes in on 16th August.

University Sport New Zealand is a Wellington based not for profit organisation and is the only National Sporting Organisation for tertiary sport in New Zealand. For more information visit our website at www.universitysport.org.nz

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