Six Sydney Uni athletes have celebrated medal-winning campaigns in Napoil for the 2019 Summer Universiade, more commonly known as the World University Games, in a highly successful event for the Uniroos.
A 16-strong contingent of Sydney Uni athletes competed across six different sports, including athletics, swimming, basketball, water polo, fencing and table tennis.
Swimmer William Yang set the pace in week one, claiming Australia’s first medal of the event by winning gold in the 50m butterfly.
An incredible story, Yang was competing in his first international event and his time of 23.32 seconds would have won gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Success flowed onto the basketabll as the Emerging Opals looked to defend their World Uni Games title, again claiming gold in a hard-fought 80-72 battle against USA in the final.
Brydens Sydney Uni Flames stars Lauren Scherf, who now boasts two gold medals, and Lara McSpadden joined Yang in the champion category.
Australia enjoyed a double-gold celebration that night and so too did Sydney Uni with Catriona Bisset winning the 800m soon after.
The business end of athletics was underway in week two and Sydney Uni athletes bagged their last piece of silverware in the 4x400m relay as Jess Stafford and Gen Cowie snared a bronze medal.
Results elsewhere saw Angus Armstrong qualify for the men’s pole vault final, however he could not secure a place on the podium.
The men’s water polo team, including Sydney Uni’s Tom McJannett and Christian Kyriakou, finished in eighth place, while the women’s team which featured Tilly Kearns and Danielle Morrissey came in at fifth.
The men’s foil fencing team of Sholto Douglas and Matthew Dall’Asen came inches away from a medal, reaching the bronze medal match.
James Traiforos finished 49th with a time of 29.56 in the men’s 50m breaststroke preliminaries, while Sarah Tan reached the round of 16 in table tennis doubles with a win over Estonia before losing to Japan.
