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While many elite athletes have one eye on the
London Olympics in just under a years time,
for one group of student athletes from the
University of Melbourne, their sights were set firmly
on Shenzhen in China this August.
That's where the 26th Summer Universiade,
or World University Games, were held, with Australia
sending athletes to compete in a variety of sports,
everything from swimming to basketball.
Eleven University of Melbourne students were
part of the team that competed in China,
the most successful Australian team yet to compete
at the World Uni Games.
The Uniroos team of nearly one hundred and fifty athletes
finished with sixteen medals across sixteen different sports
including five gold, three silver, and eight bronze.
Swimmer Marieke Guehrer, who led the Australian swimming
team to a games record in the four-by-100 metre
freestyle relay, said the event was a fantastic experience.
I just came back from the World Championships
so it was great for me to be able to swim some
of my individual events and try and improve on
those, and I did.
Our four-by-100 freestyle relay was a great night
and a great swim and we were head to head,
or neck to neck with the Americans the whole way
and then I was just able to touch them out in the
finish so it was a great race especially for
the people watching, maybe not so much for me
because it hurt so much, but it was a really great
experience and we had a great time.
The best thing about the World Uni Games is that
it's in a village so, different from the
World Championships where we all stay in hotels and
we're very pampered I guess.
Whereas the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games
and obviously the World Uni Games are all in a village
so it's a lot more social but it also prepares us
for next year for going to the Olympics.
Eric Sheppard, a cyclist who finished 28th in the
road race event, agreed the experience
was well worth it.
I definitely recommend the experience of going
to the World Uni Games, I think it's good fun.
There's obviously the sporting aspect,
the multi-sport aspect, you meet lots of people
from other countries.
Rod Warnecke, the Sport Development Manager at
Melbourne University Sport, says the uni Games provide
a stepping stone for many elite athletes towards
higher levels of competition.
The World University Games are every second year,
unlike the Olympics or Commonwealth Games which
are every four, and there's also a series of
World University Championships which intersperse those
World University Games years.
So there's plenty of opportunities for elite
student athletes from across the world to
represent their country.
The games are no doubt a fantastic stepping stone
for Australia's up and coming elite athletes.
Many of them that have represented Australia at
these games have already represented Australia in
junior or senior competition.
There's also a large number that are on the cusp
of making that step into representing Australia at
senior sporting level.
Marcus Memmolo, who competed in Tae Kwon Do, says the event
was a good test for where he's at.
Qualifiers for the Olympics are coming up next month and
so a lot of competitors, including a couple
from Australia, use this as a stepping stone.
Without doubt one of the best trips I've ever done
and just the magnitude of the whole event the fact that
they'd built so many stadiums and a train station and
everything there for us was just mind blowing
when I got there.