For Australian Touch Football captain Nicholas Good, the Eastern University Games have been a chance to relax after a stressful university session and enjoy the spoils of Kiama’s hospitality.
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Along with about 200 of his University of Western Sydney classmates, the high achieving sportsman has converged on the small southern Illawarra town this week for the annual sporting event, which has brought thousands of students from 17 institutions to the Illawarra.
Mr Good said there was a “healthy competition” between the different institutions at the games, but said the emphasis was on fun and meeting new people.
“It’s serious, but there’s definitely an element of fun towards each game,” he said.
“You get to meet new people, build networks and represent your uni, which you put so much time into, on a different level.”
Unlike Mr Good, University of Wollongong student and Shellharbour resident Zachary Ellul hasn’t had to travel for this year’s games.
But, he’s hoping a home ground advantage – and a full strength team – will allow the local OzTag team to triumph.
“You do have those grudge matches and those competitive factors when you’ve got two teams that are great lining up against each other,” he said.
“But there’s a lot of fellas here that are just here for fun, and that’s good also.”
Outside of the sporting competition, Mr Ellul said there were plenty of social aspects to the university games, which has been evident by the number of groups of young men and women packing out bars and clubs in Wollongong over the past two days.
“We go out to dinner with the team and that sort of thing – and a bit of alcohol is introduced, but our boys aren’t too rowdy because we’ve got a good chance of winning gold,” he said.
“The finals are on Thursday and hopefully we’ll be there – we were there in 2013 and 2014, and we’re hoping to make a comeback after a no so good 2015.”
The university games will continue until Thursday, with 19 sports to be contested during the competition.
Some teams will go on to compete at the Australian University Games, to be held in Perth in September.
The sports played include ultimate frisbee, volleyball, tenpin bowling, tennis, netball, hockey, football and basketball.