UniSport Finals, the biggest event of Croatian academic sport, which was also a qualifying event for the European Universities Games Zagreb – Rijeka this year, as well as a test event for the organizers, was held in Poreč from 19 to 22 May.
UniSport Finals was opened on Thursday night by the President of the Croatian Academic Sport Federation Zrinko Čustonja. In order for all the competitions to pass in a real sporting spirit, golden-medal European basketball player Sara Plavljanin from the University of Zagreb read the oath on behalf of all athletes, and the judges’ oath was read by Hrvoje Jurković.
The opening spectacle was made unforgettable by Sonja and Jan from the dance-acrobatic association “Crowd Control”, but the real joy started when the EUG mascot Hrki appeared, in the company of Tornjak, the mascot of the European Men’s Handball Championship, which will take place in 2018 in Croatia.
Unisport Finals 2016, which broke the record for the number of competitors this year, formed teams from fourteen higher education institutions and with all eight Croatian universities.
Champions from this year’s UniSport Finals increased their chances to place for a trip to the World Universiade, which will take place in 2017 in Thailand; and for many of them this will be the last big test for the upcoming European Universities Games, which will be hosted this July by Zagreb and Rijeka. The games will bring together over 5000 athletes from all over Europe, and among them there will be a large number of local competitors, some of whom have recently shown their sporting skills in Poreč.
Unisport Finals, as well as the upcoming European Universities Games, are projects with which the Croatian Academic Sports Federation wants to create a powerful university sport accessible to all students, thus creating added value to student life and development.
