This year, two major Hungarian cities, Debrecen and Miskolc, hosted the European Universities Games (EUSA) between 12 and 24 July, with the University of Pécs participating with a record 101 teams in 11 sports.
"As part of our university-centred sport and para-sport strategy, the aim is to provide international competition opportunities for students who excel in elite sport, together with University Athletic Club of Pécs (PTE PEAC), and to increase the visibility of UP. In 2022, around 30 athletes will have qualified in four sports in competitions and games organised by the European University Sports Federation. By 2023, this number had doubled, with 60 athletes participating in seven sports. This year, even more athletes represented UP at the European Universities Games.
The growing numbers are something to be proud of, and the international environment creates the opportunity for university citizens to become more interested in sport and even to get involved themselves
- this contributes to their mental as well as physical well-being," underlined Dr. József Betlehem, Vice-Rector.
"When evaluating our participation in the 2024 Summer European Universities Games, it is important to see the big picture, that in the years since the pandemic, the University of Pécs has become increasingly successful in the domestic and international university sports scene. On one hand, this positive trend has led to the fact that
this year a record number of 101 participants represented our institution at one of the most popular and prestigious international university sports competitions.
On the other hand, recent successes - especially in similar international competitions - have perhaps raised our medal hopes beyond what was realistic, despite the fact that, on the basis of what we have seen, this year's two medals could have been at least five. However, we know that this is sport, there are no conditional mode, and we have to accept that the "nuances" were not on our side this time, nor was the field any weaker, in fact.Hopefully, the sporting experiences and lessons learned at these games will soon help our teams who will be interested in next year's European University and World University Games.", said Zoárd Halmos, the University of Pécs' representative for sports strategic coordination.
3x3 Basketball
The 3x3 basketball team of the University of Pécs made its debut at the European University Games on 12 July, and although they could not win all their matches, the boys played heroically and gave their best. The team finished 21st overall in the international field.
Benjámin Kelemen, one of the team's players, commented on the team's performance: "In my opinion, we would have been a pretty good team if we had spent a bit more time together."
The team: Benjámin Kelemen, Balázs Bánfi, Barna Márton Merkl, Áron Zsok.
Table tennis
UP men's and women's individuals, duos and table tennis teams competed, but unfortunately our results were below our expectations.
"Our women's team and Helga Dari came 5th, and we also have two 9th places, obviously we were left with a lot of disappointment, because we came here to win a medal, and in the last two years we have always managed to win two or two, but we have to admit that the field is very strong and united, with a lot of good players" - summarized the results of the sport, Gábor Orosz, UP's sport referee.
Team members: Barnabás Marcell Faragó, Írisz Laskai, Dóra Jankus, Rebeka Molnár, Dávid Molnár, Dominik Mihalovity, Sebestyén Kovács, Helga Adél Dari
Futsal
In the group draws, neither our men's nor our women's team were lucky, the latter was placed in a "group of death", where they faced strong opponents such as Lyon, Seville or Maribor. The boys fought very hard, as we approached the end of the EUSA, we had more and more injured players, and at the last matches it was questionable whether our starting team could be up to the task. The men's national team still finished in a strong mid-table position, in 10th place, the best of the home teams.
This was the first international competition for the women's national team, which is not originally a futsal team but a big football team, but they did very well and finished the tournament in 12th place. However, the UP women's futsal team also gained experience from the tournament, as they had the honour of being awarded the Fair Play Award by the EUSA Futsal delegation.
"Overall, I think both teams did a decent job. I'm proud of the girls who earned the EUSA Futsal delegation's Fair Play award and I'm proud of the boys who started from a group of death and progressed step by step, improving step by step. Both teams have a lot of heart, knowledge and will," said József Hári, head of the UP Futsal team, about the participation.
Members of the women's futsal team: Viktória Halász, Jázmin Farkas, Gréta Horváth Száva, Fanni Rituper Rachel, Orsolya Sőléd, Dorina Buzási, Réka Balogh, Enikő Bircsák, Virág Bocz, Alexa Spiel, Eszter Eigner, Dorina Kövesdi, Fruzsina Ronta, Mónika Nyéki
Members of the men's futsal team: Márk Tóth, Ádám Demeter, Edward Wilkesz, Dániel Pánovics, Olivér Than, Márk Hajnal, Soma Vénosz, Gergő Bálint, Márk Palvek, Milán Molnár, Csongor Gábor Molnár, Adrián Szili
Judo
Naji Dávid won the bronze medal in judo, while Szabó Cseperke took 7th place out of 25 participants, which is a particularly outstanding result in such a strong field.
"Overall, I am very pleased with his performance. It is obvious that he is among the best in this field, also technically" - said Dávid Naji's coach of the UP Judo national team, Márton Kéki, who also praised Cseperke Szabó: "She is still a junior and in this competition she finished 7th out of 25 competitors, which is a very good result, especially considering that she is a very young competitor!"
Karate
Milán Márk Bendó, a student of the Faculty of Health Sciences, competed in the 84 kg weight category with thirty-four other athletes, many of whom are national team members. Unfortunately, he was eliminated from the EUSA after the first bout in the straight knockout competition.
"This level is not my category, I knew that before the match", said Milan Márk Bendó, and underlined. “It was a fair fight, with a result worthy of the difference between us."
Handball
"The draw was good, we avoided last year's winners and the group that was going to be the toughest, but you couldn't really know much about our opponents, you couldn't prepare for them, you could watch one or two shots of 2023. We had mixed feelings, but we hoped that we would be able to enforce the running, agile, hard defensive style of handball that we represent on the court," said Dr. Róbert Paic, Head of the Institute of Sports Science and Physical Education at the Faculty of Sciences after the first match. UP's handball team finished in 9th place overall.
Members of the handball team: Eszter Pál, Johanna Jarjabka, Lili Borbély, Lili Kövecses, Kinga Kajdi, Bori Borbély, Ilona Kajdi, Enikő Őz, Fruzsina Bardi, Nóra Imrei, Abigél Bréda, Dorina Bartók, Fanni Dézsi, Laura Palaczki Lilla, Vanda Adelinda Barta
Kick-box
Levente Péter Kis and Bendegúz Sándor Tóth represented our institution in this sport. The former is used to competing in the 60 kg weight category, but he didn't have the opportunity to do so in the EUSA, so he competed in the 67 kg weight category, which unfortunately showed in his matches. Bendegúz Sándor Tóth left the tournament in the semi-finals with a bronze medal, and József Jorcsák, the head of the UP Kickboxing team, said, "Bendegúz played a very good match from a professional point of view."
Chess
Judit Juhász and Eszter Balogh took to the board for UP, they took the obstacles very well, and after the changing results, the team finally finished 8th in the Rapid competition, their perseverance and commitment is truly exemplary.
The blitz game, which is 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per step, was a new challenge for the girls, but they adapted quickly, the team improved a lot and gained valuable experience, finishing 6th in the category.
Taekwondo
In a very close competition, Klementina Balázs lost at the European Universities Games, summing up her performance as follows. “The atmosphere was very good, I enjoyed the match, I only made some small mistakes, but my opponent was also very skilful. I didn't get any consolation, but I don't mind. Maybe next time I will do better. The national championship will be in the autumn, I would like to play in it if I have the chance."
Badminton
The UP badminton team finished 15th in a strong international field, Daniella Gonda, Kristóf Tóth and two of our boys' doubles also finished in the top 16. "Our team lost in long and close matches, we just missed the matches," said Dr. Miklós Végh, head of the UP badminton team, and added: "For us, today was the end of the competition. We have players for whom this was the last competition as university students, so we will rejuvenate next year and start the EUSA 2025 in Madrid with renewed vigour."
Members of the badminton team: Anna Palkovics , Gergő Pytel, Csilla Gonda Daniella, Kristóf Tóth, Barnabás Tóth, Zsombor Dulcz, Benjámin Kiss Bene, Dóra Fanni Kiss
Water polo
The UP men's water polo team finished sixth overall, second in the group. The result and the performance in the tournament were summarized by Viktor Török, head coach of the UP Water Polo team:
"We would have liked to end this match with a win, if only because this was the last time we played together in this line-up. It was a very close game, both teams defended well, but in the last part of the game we made some mistakes that the opponent could take advantage of. We managed to come back from a deficit, but our luck ran out and we scored at the hooter. I think we did everything we could, but unfortunately that was all we could do."
Members of the water polo team: Erik Palatinus, Péter Donát Nagy, Gergely Alex Galambos, Attila Aranyi, Márton Keresztúri, László Bendegúz Jámbor, Ákos Gelencsér, Ábel Szilágyi, Benjamin Sipos, Tamás Tóth-Gili, Ákos Varga, Márk Majnik, Róbert Bence Gergó
Results:
https://results.eusa.eu/index.php?page=rankings&club=531&season=11&event=0
