REBECCA MARSHALLSAY
Just over a week ago, more than 280 Griffith students were able to kick-back, relax and recover after an epic week at the Australian Unigames. Griffith University achieved its best result ever, finishing second out of forty-two universities in the overall points tally. The 2015 Australian Unigames was held here on the Gold Coast between 27 September and 2 October, and delivered more than 30 team and individual sports.
Griffith claimed pennants in several team sports; Open Baseball, Men’s Cycling, Men’s Rugby Union 7’s, Men’s Swimming and Men’s Touch Football. In the Netball, Griffith defeated the traditionally dominant Victorian universities to claim first place in the women’s and mixed events. Across all sports, Griffith students secured an impressive 23 gold medals, 15 silver medals and four bronze medals.
The games saw many notable performances and an incredible amount of fun had across all sports. This year Griffith asserted its dominance in touch football in particular. The University fielded mixed, women’s and men’s teams in division one and placed 4th, 2nd and 1st respectively. This solid performance makes Griffith arguably the best touch university in the country.
Griffith also put on a great performance in the pool. With a team that included several Olympians, our swimmers won 18 medals and took first place in men’s point score, third place in the women’s and first place overall. As well as their incredible talent, the swimmers put on one of the best displays of camaraderie and support throughout the week.
Australian Unigames also acknowledges individual excellence in team and individual sports through the Green & Gold selection process. Individuals are awarded a place in the Green &Gold (paper) team for their sport and presented with a medal to acknowledge their outstanding performance. Twenty-seven Griffith University students made Green & Gold selection with 18 of these students based on the Gold Coast campus.
While most of our athletes were tearing it up on the Coast, the Rowing Club headed to Adelaide to compete at the Australian University Rowing Championships. The team’s best result went to Georgie Smith and Taneille Wilshire who took bronze in the women’s pairs. Head Coach Lincoln Handley said that the team, who are almost all first year students, had a great time and are looking forward to tackling next year’s event with more experience under their belt. Special mention should go to Lincoln and Coach Kane Ramon who not only provided great support for the team but also drove the boats all the way to South Australia and back.
