Preparation for this year’s Australian Uni Games has started for the University of Wollongong. Over 7,000 students from around the country expected to compete on the Gold Coast in September.
Uni Games brings together students from a variety of age groups and backgrounds from universities across the country to compete in a list of sports, including basketball, netball, touch football, and Oztag.
First year Communications and Media student Katie Turnbull will compete in the mixed touch football competition.
“I only recently joined the [touch] team for fun and one of the older guys I play with told me about Uni games and it sounds awesome,” Ms Turnbull said.
“We train once and week and we don’t take it too seriously but I think our competitive streak will come out in actual games.”
Over 30,000 students have competed in the Uni Games over the past two decades, and a different university hosts the event each year. Monash, ANU and the University of Melbourne are strong competitors, University of Sydney holds the record for most wins, with nine out of 20 Uni Games titles.
Past competitor Jessie De Rosa travelled to Newcastle last year for the big event.
“We played three games a day and about eight games altogether,” he said.
“The vibe was good but there was a lot of competition between different universities. A lot of the older students said we couldn’t socialise with students from other universities.”