UWB athletes set out for the Czech Academic Games

About a hundred students from the University of West Bohemia will compete for academic sports titles in Brno during the penultimate week of June. This year’s 24th edition of the Czech Academic Games will welcome more than a thousand athletes and feature two dozen academic championships.

Track and field, aerobics, beach volleyball, swimming, orienteering, and many others. This year’s Czech Academic Games in Brno, taking place from June 21 to 26, will feature 21 sports disciplines. Approximately 1,200 university students from across the Czech Republic will compete for the title of academic champion. At the country’s largest academic sporting event, the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen will be represented by 37 individual athletes and seven sports teams.

Among the individual athletes on the Pilsen delegation, the majority are track and field athletes, totaling 14. “Javelin thrower Josef Šindelář from the Faculty of Education has the best chance of winning a medal, followed by the pair of 5,000-meter long-distance runners Jan Riegel and Jan Škarban, both from the Faculty of Applied Sciences,” said Petr Šlajs, director of the UWB Institute of Physical Education and Sports. According to him, medals could also be won in judo, where three UWB students compete, or in beach volleyball tournaments. A total of six pairs from Pilsen will be competing there.

In team sports, the UWB has high hopes for its women’s futsal team, which regularly finishes at the top of the standings. The university also has teams in both men’s and women’s 3x3 basketball, Frisbee, baseball, and men’s and women’s handball. However, the men’s handball team will be missing their key player, Adam Beneš from the Faculty of Economics, this time around. During the Games, he will be representing the Czech Republic on the national university team at the World University Championships in Bordeaux, France.

At last year’s Academic Games in Ostrava, UWB brought home a total of seven medals. Success was achieved by both male and female track and field athletes and by individual judo competitors. This year’s 24th edition is being hosted by the Brno University of Technology. According to the organizers, the competitors will include members of the Czech national team, as well as participants in the World University Games, the World University Championships, and the European University Games. Details and lists of all athletes are available on the Czech Academic Games website.