UNSW's UniRoos off to Napoli

The 2019 Summer Universiade will be held from 3-14 July in Napoli, Italy. Napoli 2019 will be the 25th Summer Universaide that the Australian UniRoos will compete at, continuing a long and proud history of success. 

This year, UNSW has eight representatives who will compete as part of the UniRoos team in Napoli. Bachelor of Science students Freya Clarke (fencing) and Edward Belokopytov (table tennis) and Bachelor of Criminology & Criminal Justice student Angus Lambie (water polo) have all been selected to take part.

Meanwhile the UniRoos sailing team is entirely comprised of UNSW students, including Mitchell Evans (Bachelor of Engineering - Mechanical), Jessica Grimes (Bachelor of Arts/Law), Tom Grimes (Bachelor of Engineering - Aerospace), Nicholas Rozenauers (Bachelor of Engineering - Electrical) and Anneliese Scholten (Bachelor of Media).

The sailing team took out gold in 2018 and Rozenauers is determined to back up that effort.

"Our goal is to become back to back Sailing Universiade Champions," he said.

"A lot like last year, we have no idea of the strength of or who are our competitors are. This is somewhat daunting, however we have been hard at work putting in consistent trainings to ensure we are well prepared for every possibility.

"I would like to thank the RS Boats dealer for lending our team the same boat to train in as we will be competing in"

Teammate Jessica Grimes said the team are much better prepared this year.

"Last year, we decided to participate two weeks from the event," she said. "We did as much training as we could in the time that we had and the team brought a lot of focus and energy to Cherbourg. We worked extremely well together and raced really hard over the event to take out the win.

"This year, we have had a lot more preparation and, with a slightly modified team to satisfy the rules, hope to bring the same level of intensity and enjoyment to Naples. Ultimately, I would love to successfully defend our title, but if the results don't go our way in the end, I know we have done our best in preparation."

Table tennis player Eddie Belokopytov is hoping to make it through to the round of 32 at the Games.

"My long term goal in table tennis is to make the national squad," he said. "Or if I'm feeling super ambitious, represent Australia at the Commonwealth Games."

Sailor Anneliese Scholten spoke about the challenges of balancing high performance sport with study.

"I find balancing sailing and uni life quite challenging sometimes," she said.

"In general, I try to stay as organised as I can and accept that sometimes sacrifices will have to be made. For the Universiade, the team mainly did early morning training sessions, often before uni which left time during the day to study or work."

The Australian UniRoos were born in 2011 following a stakeholder wide search to find an identity that would bind all Australian University Sport teams under the one banner. The 26th Summer Universiade team that competed in Shenzhen, China and collected Australia's largest ever medial haul was the first team to represent under the UniRoos name, logo and values.

​The 'roos' name is synonymous with sport in this country and the addition of the Australian UniRoos to the likes of the Socceroos and Hockeyroos emphasises the standing of international Australian university teams and underlies the importance of the pathway that exists whilst at the same time, tying the program to the greater Australian sporting landscape.

The emergence of the Australian UniRoos was a significant step forward in the development of Australian success and acknowledgement on the international university stage however the history of the UniRoos dates back far longer than the birth of an identity in 2011. The UniRoos is an identity that proudly recognises and represents past team members and successes and encompasses the values and ideals that have been built through a long history.

International University sport has witnessed the emergence of a huge number of Australian World Championship, Commonwealth Games and Olympic champions including Steve Moneghetti (athletics), Michelle Timms (basketball), Steve Hooker (pole vault) and Brooke Hanson (swimming). The tradition and platform laid by all past Australian University Sport international team members will be carried on in the new wave of Australia's sporting elite and the new breed of Australian UniRoos.

All eight of the UNSW representatives are members of the Elite Athletes, Performers and Leaders program at UNSW. This program allows students to balance their sport and study to achieve highly in both realms, as Angus Lambie discussed with UNSW Sport recently.