• Sports , Student
  • 11/06/2024

Eindhoven once again the best student sports city

On Sunday the SSCe brought back to Eindhoven the winner's prize at the Great Dutch Student Championship: the challenge trophy. Competing in Rotterdam, Eindhoven's 24 teams won more points in 12 sports at the GNSK than any other Dutch student city. E-sports, beach volleyball and sport climbing were among the sports at which Eindhoven excelled.

by
photo Arie Kers

At this year's GNSK 34 competitions were held in 12 different sports. Each year the host city chooses the sports in conjunction with Student Sports The Netherlands (SSN). This year Rotterdam offered sport climbing, badminton and beach volleyball, but not cycling, powerlifting or water sports. In sport climbing Joshua Myers (Electrical Engineering student) and Liz Buur (Industrial Design student) took bronze for Eindhoven. Tzu-Yeuh Huang (Electrical Engineering student) won gold in badminton, and in beach volleyball Eindhoven's men took silver and Eindhoven's women won bronze.

Teams are awarded points for each of their participants, and the more participating cities, the more points there are to be won. In total, Eindhoven collected 2774 points. Groningen came second at this year's GNSK with 2510 points, and Amsterdam ranked third with 2498. After ten sports, things were still exciting – more about that later. Read the final results here.

Participation pays

Alexander Vlaar, president of ESSF, the federation of Eindhoven student sports associations, has a good idea why he and the other board members were able to bring the challenge trophy – won last year in Wageningen – back home.

ESSF board brings the challenge trophy back to Eindhoven. Photo | Arie Kers

“We fielded 24 teams; we took part in every sport. That's quite some achievement considering we're only the fifth largest city in the Netherlands. Both the quality and the quantity of a university's performance matters. We sent a big delegation to Rotterdam. Lots of athletes, and in the weekend they were joined by their trainers, the director of SSCe Wim Koch, and the association managers. Everyone deserves high praise; we've been encouraged to take part in the GNSK all year long.”

Exciting

With ten sports completed, the GNSK was anything but predictable, says SSN staffer Sibren Ottens. “Eindhoven and Amsterdam were tied. Still to come were the tennis and the four categories of e-sports. In Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, Valorant and League of Legends Eindhoven took two golds, a silver and a bronze. Amsterdam won just one gold medal less. It was the tennis that widened the gap; Amsterdam didn't participate. So you see, it pays to take part. After that, you have to do well.”

The ESSF board members got on their bikes and visited as many of the six sports venues as they could. Vlaar was impressed by the sport climbing: the best climber was decided in competition ranging across eight walls, each of which had three different zones. ”The points are spread over a route and the more people who reach the top, the easier the route is and so the fewer points you get.” The ESSF president was less enthusiastic about the award ceremony. “It was really quiet because most of our athletes and support teams had already left. As we found out later, they were already celebrating outside.”

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