This year, the European Universities Combat Championships in taekwondo were held in the Polish capital, Warsaw, where participant Anna Somogyi from Semmelweis University – third-year student, Faculty of Medicine (ÁOK), first from the right in the photo – finished the competition series with a bronze medal (Kyorugi women’s tournament +62 kg to 67 kg). She told our website that she had been participating in competitive sports for 12 years and that it was a great experience for her to represent the university at an international competition for the first time.
She said that the lively event was a great opportunity to meet her peers who also compete at a high level alongside their studies, which is no small challenge despite the sense of achievement that it gives them. “At the Faculty of Medicine, you have to spend a lot of time in practicals, so it’s difficult to organize regular, concentrated training sessions twice a day,” she said. This summer, however, was ideal for training because as a second-year student she did not yet have summer clinical practice, so she was able to devote the entire summer to preparing for the competition, which paid off.
The European Universities Championships are held annually in different countries for each sport under the auspices of the European University Sports Association (EUSA). Each time, a different university organizes and hosts the event.
The European Universities Orienteering Championship was held in Łódz, Poland, with the participation of athletes from 58 universities in 16 countries, in which Zsófia Biacs (Faculty of Medicine, 5th year) and Dominika Mérő (Faculty of Health Sciences [ETK], 4th year) also took part – the latter won a bronze medal in the women’s sprint race, while the sprint relay team finished in 7th place. “They are experienced competitors with several European and world championships under their belts, and like many of their peers, they often represent the university independently in competitions without coaching support, and they hold their own,” emphasized Kornélia Várszegi, Director of Semmelweis University’s Physical Education and Sports Center, who had accompanied the athletes to the event. She highlighted the cohesion of the Hungarian delegation at international competitions as a valuable experience – they support each other not only in terms of sportsmanship, but also in their daily routines. “Several Hungarian universities participate in these competitions, and while they are competitors on the field, when they are standing on the sidelines, they cheer each other on as fellow university athletes,” added the director.
The Table Tennis Department was formed last year, and now, for the first time, their women’s team took part in an international competition from September 11 to 17 at the European Universities Table Tennis Championship in Burdur, Turkey (Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University). Coach Miklós András reported that the three-member team had to hold its own in a strong field. It was a special experience for them to compete against players from the Wrocław University of Economics and Business (UEW) who were members of the Polish national team and had participated in the Olympics; also, their victories against the host Turkish university team and the strong University College London team were valuable. Overall, Viola Phan Thi Xuan Vi (Faculty of Dentistry FOK, 5th year), Eszter Borbála Borsi (ÁOK, 3rd year), and Franciska Pad (ETK, graduated this year) finished in 11th place.
This year’s World University Games, organized by the International University Sports Federation (FISU), were hosted by six cities in Germany (Bochum, Duisburg, Essen, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Hagen, and Berlin), where a total of 1,970 universities were represented by 9,047 athletes in 18 sports. Semmelweis students competed alongside 30 other Hungarian universities in athletics, fencing, and water polo at the world’s largest university multisport event.
Csaba Levente Molnár (Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences [GYTK], 3rd year) competed in the men’s 400 m hurdles event in athletics. After the competition, he noted that this season had started well for him and that, thanks to the joint efforts of his coach and himself, he had managed to break the 50-second psychological barrier at the end of July, which he had wanted to achieve for some time, so he arrived in Bochum for the world championships with this momentum. “I was impressed by the precision of the German organizers, and it was a special experience to warm up, run, and have lunch among competitors of many different nationalities and backgrounds, not to mention when the name of Semmelweis University was announced during the presentation before the start,” stressed Csaba Levente Molnár.
Anna Spiesz (ÁOK, 2nd year) returned home from Essen as the most successful Semmelweis competitor at this year’s FISU World University Games, winning a silver medal in the women’s individual sabre competition. When contacted by our website, she said that she had a decade of sporting experience behind her: She is a five-time European age-group champion and one-time world champion, but this was her first international university world competition in which she had to hold her own in a strong field, as Asian countries, for example, were represented in the competition by their best fencers, who were also part of their national team at the adult world championships. She emphasized that she and her teammates had been able to participate in a competition with a very good atmosphere, she felt that her fencing had gone well, and it was a very good end to this season. She is currently a member of the adult national team and ranks 55th in the world.
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Kornélia Várszegi commented on the competition results: She and her colleagues are on personal terms with many athletes, help them register and organize their participation in competitions, and would like to see as many people as possible get involved in university sports. “Our goal is to find students who, in addition to their studies, invest a lot of energy into performing well in competitive sports. I would like to encourage them to contact us if they feel motivated and determined to compete, and to contend with the best while representing Semmelweis University!”
Róbert Tasnádi
Translation: Dr. Balázs Csizmadia
Image credit: Sports departments, competitors; Hungarian University Sports Federation (MEFS)
