The Festival UNI.Sport was held at Sanbapolis on 11 December. It was a great celebration of sports and an opportunity to get acquainted with new sports or support a team together with other students.
Many students took advantage of the chance to try out the various activities or participate in tournaments held in the large gym.
They had the opportunity to try, for free, all sports, spanning from the most traditional to the less known: from baseball (with baseball tries using the machinery to throw the balls); sailing (using a simulator); rock climbing, supervised by the Alpine guides of winter sports.
Many information desks were organised during the Festival, on ski days, ski courses, on the trip to Madonna di Campiglio for the SS 3tre for the Ski World Cup, on the ‘Gran Fondo Viote Monte’ field; the Nordic Ski Marathon TC non-competitive race on Bondone and finally on the sports courses of the second semester.
Many students registered for the inter-department tournaments of volleyball, basket, basket 3vs3, men’s, women’s and mixed five-a-side football, beach volley and beach tennis. They also asked for information on the CUS Trento professional sports sections and on the selection of the representatives for the Students Winter and Spring National Championships for team and individual races.
The festival coincides with the inauguration of the sports academic year and the start of the UNI.Sport activities, with Josh Owens, a player of Aquila Basket. His participation, together with the TOP Sport athletes, was amongst the novelties of this year’s Festival. Owens told his experience as an athlete and as a student in the US, underlining both the difficulties and the opportunities connected with the double degree programmes and the combination of sports and university.
The Inauguration of the sports academic year is very symbolic because it took place exactly one year after the start of the Trentino 2013 Winter Universiade.
The speeches delivered by Paolo Bouquet, Pro-Rector for Sports, Sergio Anesi, President of the Trentino 2013 OC, underlined the relevance of the support given to students-athletes.
This sports academic year will be rich in initiatives and opportunities to experience sports, as described by Gianluca Tasin, President of the CUS Trento.
At the end of the ceremony the academic and sports awards were awarded to the athletes of the University of Trento and the book VOLUNTEERS by Montura Editing was presented, which is devoted to the volunteers of the Winter Universiade Trentino 2013.
The awarded students were first of all the TOP Sport Programme students, who graduated during the last academic year: Fabio Marsoner (Orienteering), Andrea Pilzer (Curling), Riccardo Tonetti (Alpine skiing), Gabriele Canella (Ski-orienteering), Diana Da Rugna (Hockey), Lorenzo Gallosti (Volleyball) and Nicole Scalet (Orienteering).
Also the team of CUS Trento Basket (2nd in the D Regional Championship 2013/14) and of CUS Trento five-a-side Football (winner of the D Regional Championship 2013/14) received their awards, together with the two teams equally gained the first position at the Facoltiadi 2014: Economics 1 and Engineering 1.
Niccolò Pisoni, winner of the Athletics University in the javelin competition, Giordano Passerini, second at the Winter National University Cross-country championship, Gianluca Pozzati, winner of the Triathlon University Championship, Ilaria Zane, second at the Triathlon University Championship and Gabriele Caretta, third at the Winter National University Cross-country championship also received their awards.