Students could learn about rather peculiar kinds of sports at the first International University Sports Day hosted by the University of Debrecen, where they could also match their skills in five-a-side soccer, basketball, and tennis, in addition to some of the national sports practiced overseas.
American football, baseball, cheerleadering, frisbee and rugby are fairly popular abroad but less recognized in Hungary. Students at UD had a chance to find out about all of them though at the event held jointly by Debreceni Egyetem Sporttudományi Intézete [Institute for Sport Sciences of UD], DE Sportiroda [UD Sports Office] and DEHÖK Sportbizottság [Sports Committee of SSGUD], where demonstration practice sessions of these more “exotic” sports were also offered for their viewing pleasure.
There has been a frisbee team operating at the University of Debrecen for a number of years. Members of the team have won several national championships and silver at this year’s MEFOB [National Championship of Hungarian Colleges and Universities], while the high school frisbee team have won what is called Diákolimpia [verbatim: Student Olympics].
The cheerleader team of the university can also boast of similarly impressive results. This spring, the team called DEAC Cheerleader Szakosztályának UD Cheerleaders csapata came in second in the Performance Cheer category at the competition KEK 2017, and they also won their first gold at the international competition Magical Flight Cup Open Nemzetközi Verseny hosted by Budai Akrobatikus Sport Egyesület.
Debreceni Rögbi Klub has been founded by two medical students with the objective to introduce and instruct rugby football skills at the University of Debrecen. Today, they have seven players on the team, and their recently adopted name is Debrecen Rugby Football Club.
Participants in the sports day could also join in the fun in addition to just looking, and find that the most popular of all possibilities for sampling was unanimously the zumba workout: there were about 250 students dancing to keep fit at this specific practice session.
“Our intention was to present the broad spectrum of sporting opportunities available at the university for the several thousand strong international student body at UD, too. At the same time, we wished to popularize the representatives of sports less widely known or appreciated in Hungary, who cooperate with our institution. Besides, we would also like to strengthen the ties between the Hungarian and international students with the help of the community building role of sports. Through a figure of more than 500 participants at this event, I believe that this latter mission has been accomplished successfully. In the future, we plan to further develop this annually recurring opportunity in order to make the students ‘shake a leg,’” said the chief organizer, Tibor Pöszmet.
Final results of the contests at the first Nemzetközi Egyetemi Sportnap:
1. Taiwan (Chang Che-Lun, Liu Po Ting, Liang Ting Chun, Tsung Yu Ning)
2. Snipers (Galyaki Brian Castrol, Ioutock Eyuva, Tanaka Mawoyo)
3. Have Fun (Herczku Attila, Guti Szabolcs, Dudás Máté)
Chess
1. Balogh Dávid
2. Emamgholizadeh Armin
3. Tran Dao Gia Nguyen és Nguyen Cong Van
Five-a-side soccer
1. Samba KSA
2. FC Spurs
3. Juice
4. Fődet rá
Tennis
Women's
1. Peng Hsin-I
2. Kotosmann Krisztina
3. Simon Sára Rebeka
4. Bíró Luca
Men's
1. Rábai Dávid
2. Nguyen Hong Khanh Duy
3. Miklósi Dániel
4. Kurucz Kristóf
BeStrong
Women's
1. Vachter Adrienn
2. Gál Erika Imola
Men's
1. Papp Tamás
2. Versényi Péter
3. Lőrinc Sándor
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