#teamUNSW overcame inclement weather on the Gold Coast at UniSport Nationals Division 1, with plenty of great results.
The team, comprised of 400 current students, non-playing officials and Arc Sport staff participated in over 60 events over 6 days. Athletes from all wakes of UNSW life contested for medals in 16 finals, and with the caliber of competition higher than ever, we are pleased that no UNSW teams will be relegated to Division 2 for 2019.
The highest accolades went to our gold medalists and pennant winning athletes in Judo, Taekwondo and Water Polo. The Judo Men’s and Women’s opened the Nationals competition on Sunday and successfully defended their title of Overall Champions (Women’s Champions and Men’s Silver). UNSW Judo Club continues to be a force to be reckoned with on the Intervarsity and Nationals scene.
The seasoned and spirited Men’s Water Polo dominated the pool all week and secured the Champions Pennant, winning 11-3 against QUT in the final. Their side featured several UNSW Water Polo Club athletes, and their deft finals performance can be viewed here.
Taekwondo Men’s took out the Overall Champion status this year with impressive results across sparring, creative poomsae and traditional poomsae. Taekwondo Women’s were unable to defend their title from last year, but still came away with lethal individual and team results to score them the silver.
#teamUNSW also celebrated a several other podium-finishes in Track Athletics. Ben Lexcen scholar and Rio Olympian Jessica Thornton got Gold in her pet event, 400m sprint with a time of 55.20 seconds. In the unique Nationals Div 1 Athletics event of the 1600m sprint medley, both our men’s and women’s runners received bronze. Our medium distance runners were also impressive Georgia Wincup blazed through the 3000m steeplechase in under 11 minutes for a gold and Stefan Music getting silver in a photo finish 5000m run.
Table Tennis Mens battled hard against Monash late on Thursday afternoon to finish with a silver, with similar close seconds to our Taekwondo Women and Judo Men with silver medals. Our Kendo fought hard to finish with a bronze. Whilst Arc Board Director Jessica Lasky finished in the bronze spot, and only 11 points off the gold after 4 rounds of Womens Golf. UNSW Rowing were the final events of Nationals with bronze in Womens Double (Sophie Jerapetritis and Anna McGlynn) and silver in Womens Lightweight Quad (Sophie Jerapetritis, Aimee Watson, Emma Vey-Cox and Stephanie Hart).
A handful of teams came agonisingly close to medals including: Fencing (4th on debut), Badminton Women (4th), Football Women (4th), Futsal Men (4th), Hockey (4th), Squash Mixed (4th), Ultimate Men (4th) and Water Polo Womens 4th.
Overall, the event was a rip-roaring success for #teamUNSW and we look forward to defending our titles and earning new ones at UniSport events in 2019. Check out heaps of photos on Arc Sport UNSW Facebook and watch our highlights video below.
