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The 10th World Interuniversity Championships in Barcelona offered competitions in a total of thirteen sports. The University of West Bohemia in Plzeň participated in three of them. However, only the tennis players managed to win medals. Roman Vavřík and Simona Kadlecová won silver in the mixed doubles and the tennis players from Pilsen took third place in the overall tennis competition rankings. “It was the most successful event so far in terms of organization, we are extremely happy about the medal success in the mixed team,” praised Vavřík, who was at the World Interuniversity Championships for the third time this year.

The UWB futsal players, however, were less successful in Spain. After a promising start, they lost the bronze medal match on penalties to Saint Joseph University from Beirut. UWB coach Michal Štrajt does not consider it a defeat: “I view the overall 4th place positively and with great optimism for the next editions of the tournament. A consolation is the very positive feedback we received from other universities on our performance, as well as the establishment of cooperation with Saint Joseph University in Lebanon.”

Tennis player Roman Vavřík also finished in fourth place in the singles, losing the bronze medal match to an opponent from Comenius University in Bratislava. Simona Kadlecová finished fifth in singles, as did the football players from Pilsen. Football team coach Matěj Štefl was very disappointed with the quarterfinal elimination: “Our performance throughout the tournament was by no means poor; we managed the group stage without any problems. In the quarterfinal, we were the better team for the entire match, but we failed to convert our chances, while the opponent took advantage of their only opportunity.” According to Štefl, however, the opposing coach praised not only the Pilsen team’s performance but also their sportsmanship on the field.

Besides the chance to achieve sporting success, the championship in Barcelona again offered an opportunity to strengthen ties between the participating universities. According to Václav Salcman from the Center for Physical Education and Sports of the Faculty of Education, the Pilsen delegation made good use of this opportunity: "We managed to establish interesting contacts with other universities in the areas of student mobility and academic scientific and research cooperation."

This year's 10th World Interuniversity Championships (WIUSC) attracted nearly four thousand athletes from 107 universities across 32 countries to the Catalan capital in mid-November. In addition to tennis, football and futsal, in which representatives of the UWB also competed, participants could take part in competitions in volleyball, basketball, handball and badminton. Table tennis, padel, rugby 7, swimming, athletics and cheerleading were also featured. More details are available on the WIUSC website.