FISU Ends Busy September with 7 WUC
On September 2nd, Chris Ryder (GBR) and Lim Yoke Wah (MAL) won the gold medals for men and women respectively, in the individual finals of the 5th World University Squash Championships in Szeged, Hungary, which took place from August 28th to September 2nd.
Ryder, a 26-year-old student of Loughborough University, fought back from a game down to defeat favourite Mark Krajcsak, from Hungary, 7-9, 10-8, 9-1, 9-4 in 89 minutes. He dropped the first game in 25 minutes, but by the time he had clinched the second 10/8, Krajcsak was looking decidedly weary. Although the Briton took the third game for the loss of just a single point, Krajcsak threatened to come back at the start of the fourth, until his legs gave up and Ryder clinched the match to become the World University Squash Champion, adding the individual title to the team title won by Great Britain earlier in the week.
Lim Yoke Yah, the N° 2 seed, dropped the first two games in the women's final against Kathrin Rohrmüller, the un-seeded German who made her breakthrough in the semi-finals where she beat Canadian favourite Katie Patrick. The 20-year-old Malaysian survived close third and fourth games before cruising to victory in the fifth in a 6-9, 1-9, 10-8, 10-9, 9-2 score-line.
Ryder's GB team-mate Lauren Siddall secured a comfortable 3/0 win in the third-place play-off against Canada's top seed Katie Patrick to win bronze in the women's individual event, adding to the individual bronze won by Joel Hinds, who defeated Julian Illingworth in the men's third place play-off.
In the team competition it was Great Britain which claimed all the glory winning the gold leaving the silver and bronze to France and South Africa respectively.
10th World University Futsal Championship
The 10th edition of the World University Futsal Championship, which was hosted in Poznan, Poland from August 27th to September 3rd, was another full house. A maximum of 16 teams had entered the tournament and the preliminary phase of the championship was played in four pools.
In the final match of the tournament, the Russian team defeated Team Brazil 4:1 (2:0). The duel was a very obstinate one. The Brazilian team attacked more often but the Russian goalkeeper did his job extremely well. Finally the Russian team managed to score four goals. Team Brazil scored only one. The support of the spectators was amazing. The whole Arena Hall was filled with cheers.
Great emotions, cheering form the stands and many goals – that's what we can say about the match with the bronze medal at stake between Ukraine and host Poland. Team Poland started playing bravely but they did not manage to successfully defend their goal. After the first half the Ukrainian team and former University World Champion led 4:0. After the break the situation on the pitch did not change. However, the ‘red-white' host team played it to the bone and finally succeeded to score a soothing goal. The result of the match remained 4:1 for the Ukraine.
9th World University Chess Championship
The level of the men's tournament at the 9th World University Chess Championship in Lagos, Nigeria from August 28th to September 3rd was of a very high standard with the participation of four Grand Masters. The Tournament's favourite and highest rated player was Grand Master BU Xiangzhi (CHN), who recorded a classical draw against former World Chess Champion and Russian Grand Master Vladirmir Kramnik at the latest World Chess Olympiad held in Torino. The general ranking hardly changed throughout the championship and confirmed the supremacy of the Chinese players in both men’s and women’s competition.
As Walter Decleir, FISU Technical Chairman for Chess puts it: ‘I would like to congratulate the OC for all its efforts and assistance provided to all participants. The insufficient number of top players had some impact on the distribution of pairings, and consequently on the overall classification, especially for the women's tournament. Nevertheless, the inaugural organisation of this championship by the Nigerian University Sports Federation went flawless.’
11th World University Golf Championship
Everything started well for the Italian- golfers at the 11th World University Golf Championship in Torino, Italy, which took place from September 5th to 9th. Due to his excellent results on the first day Alberto Campanile, who managed a five below par, took the lead for the men just ahead of British Gordon Yates, who also started-off beautifully. The scenario was the same for the ladies as Anna Roscio (ITA), scored three below par in front of Sara Brown (USA).
Keeping a cool head is the motto of every self-respecting golfer. And in a four-day tournament any error can be fateful. So in the second day, the best players gradually moved up, and the battle for the men's gold medal would be tough between Japanese Yuta Ikeda and Chiang Chen-Chih from Chinese Taipei. Yuta Ikeda, who fell behind on the first day, caught up beautifully with a magnificent 8 below par on the second day, but was still behind Chiang Chen-Chih who showed very regular results. The two golfers were nose to nose up to the fourth day.
So, as is often the case, the last day would be decisive. For Yuta Ikeda, everything was hanging on his performance but this didn’t fluster him, and he did very well with a five below par. Chiang Chen-Chih came in second in front of American Aaron Manning.
In the Men’s team competition, Japan was also outstanding, for a magnificent double win. The USA took the silver medal and Great Britain the Bronze.
Led by Stacy Lewis, as well as Sara Brown and Renee Skidmore, the American women's team did better than the men. After four perfect rounds (72/ 71/ 71/ 72), Stacy Lewis won the individual gold medal ahead of Russian Maria Vertchenova and Japanese Hara Erina. The good performances of her team mates also meant the gold medal for the American team, followed by Japan and Russia.
Rendez-vous in 2007, at the Bangkok Universiade where golf will be an optional sport.
5th World University Wild Water Canoeing Championship
The sprint, the first competition at the 5th World University Wild Water Canoeing Championship in Krakow, Poland, which took place from September 7th to 10th, was dominated by Czech and Slovak competitors. Michala Mruzkova, four times World Champion, was unbeatable in the two Final races. She won the Gold medal with more than 6 seconds in front of Jana Dukatova from Slovakia, followed by Lenka Lagnerova from Czech Republic. Jonathan Schofield from Great Britain had the best result in both men's races and he was the logical winner of the men's Gold medal. Tomas Slovak and David Knebel, both from Czech Republic, were second and third.
In the K1 Women's Slalom, Jana Dukatova demonstrated that for the moment she is the best in the world. She was second ranked after the semi-final race just behind her team mate Gabriela Stacherova. In the final race, Dukatova (SVK) paddled the best time without touching the gates and the final ranking was changed. She took the gold, her team mate Stacherova (SVK) the bronze and the silver was taken by Marie Rihoskova (CZE).
Men's K1 leader after the qualifications Popiela (POL) made a mistake in the semi-final race and didn’t qualify for the final race which was the surprise of the day. It was Pisvejc (CZE) who had the best time winning the gold. The silver medal went to Kurt (SUI) and the bronze to Molmenti (ITA).
The Gold medal of the C1 Men's Slalom went to Florence (GBR). Alexander Slavkovsky (SVK) did have is best race landing him on the second spot. Wojs (POL) kept the bronze medal in Poland.
In the C2 Men's Doubles, the Polish boat paddled by Sarna and Pochwala was unbeatable. They made fewer touches than their rivals from the Czech and Slovak teams. So the host country took the first place on the podium, followed by Skantar/Skantar from the Slovak Republic and Sehnal/Hammer from the Czech Republic.
At the last day of the 5th World University Wild Water Canoeing Championship athletes from 6 different countries shared the medals: the dominating Czech and Slovak Republics, followed by host country Poland, Great Britain, Switzerland and Italy.
3rd World University Match Racing Championship
The third World University Match Racing Championship, which took place in Palma de Mallorca, Spain from September 19th to 24th ended with the splendid victory of skipper Mark Dorling from Australia. Mark and his team defeated Jose Ponce from Spain by 2-0 in the Semi-finals. He then competed against the well-known Skipper from Mallorca, Manuel Weiller for the title. Manuel was the best against Pierre Morvan (FRA). During the Semi-finals he won by 2-0.
Only two races were needed to know the winner and it was Mark Dorling without any doubt. He was faster and tactically cleverer than Manuel, the Spanish skipper. French skipper Pierre Morvan did well in the B final beating Jose Ponce by 2-1. He reached the third place on the podium.
2nd World University Woodball Championship
At the 2nd World University Woodball Championship in Bangkok, Thailand, which took place from September 26th to 28th, Thailand and Chinese Taipei remained the great winners of the 2nd World University Woodball Championship in Bangkok.
In the men’s tournament Weerasak Imjarouen from Thailand, who is also a great Golf player with Hcp 0, finished with the best score of the whole championship, 88 strokes, and took the Gold medal. Together with his team mates Jongkol Pimparieu, Nirum Navin and Peerapong Kaewkarmkarn Thailand won also the first place in the men’s team competition (783), one single stroke ahead of Chinese Taipei (784) with Pei-Yu Ku – also winner of the silver medal in the individual competition, Kuo-Liang Lee, C.H.Lee and Hsich-Hsin Yu. In this very high level competition, Korea won the Bronze medal in the team ranking.
In the ladies competition Hui-Jung Wang had a very good last round with 96 strokes. That result pushed her on the first place (294), while Siao-Hui Wu, leading after 2 rounds hat 103 strokes. So she lost her leading position after two rounds and took silver (295), only one point behind Wang. The best five players came from Chinese Taipei, where Woodball was invented in 1990. In the team ranking Chinese Taipei was unbeatable (792), followed by the host country Thailand (865) and Korea (941).
In the mixed competition Lee/Huang from Chinese Taipei won with two strokes less then the second mixed double from the same country, Yang/Wang, followed by Thailand’s Navin/Auefue on the third place. Overall, the most successful delegation from Chinese Taipei won three gold medals, four silver medals and one bronze medal, followed by the host country Thai-land with two gold, one silver and two bronze medals. Korea was third in the medal standings with two bronze medals in the team competitions.