World Academic Sports Challenge
By Phoebe Mau, BSc Mathematics
On June 1st, 50 students from the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences became footballers, track-and-field athletes and supporters during a 3-day trip to Paris to participate to the World Academic Sports Challenge.
The event presented an opportunity for students to network with big companies, including Disney, Schneider Electric and GDF Suez, and consisted of a day packed with sporting events against universities from seven other countries.
The female football team finished on top of their group, winning all their games with a clean sheet and scoring 19 goals! They proceeded to win the group stages and quarterfinal matches, but unfortunately were knocked out in the semifinal, finishing 3rd out of 40 universities. Both men’s football teams participated in group stages, but unfortunately did not make it through to the quarterfinals. Gemma Bridge came 3rd in the female 10km event amongst 248 runners with a time of 40:27 and both men’s 4x100m and mixed 4x400m relay teams won their heats.
The day finished off with a spectacular parade, engaging into a contest of noise/impression-making and dancing around the running track. It was an eventful day filled with sporting achievements, important career networking and bonding between universities.
The event was organised under the aegis of GDF Suez and Schneider Electric, both of which were actively seeking to employ students in internships roles and permanent positions. There were many opportunities to meet with representatives from both companies to network and informal interviews were held, which can lead to potential position offers. Last year GDF Suez employed a student from the University of Birmingham after attending the event, highlighting how feasible candidate recruitment is at the event. Who knows what will happen this year?
The College and Robinson Low Francis, the construction and property consultants, kindly sponsored our team for the sports kit. The students who went would like to thank the sponsors and organisers for all the hard work in making this happen.
During the trip a balanced mixture of intercultural awareness, sporting excellence and enjoyable sight-seeing was achieved, new friendships were made and it was a great experience for everyone! Those who went thoroughly enjoyed themselves and next year’s event is definitely not to be missed!
