Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­

A team of more than 420 University of Queensland students and staff will descend on the Gold Coast for the first competition from 22-27 September. 

390 Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ students will compete at the event – formerly known as Australian Uni Games – against participants from 43 Australian universities.

Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ will field 39 teams across 26 sports, including baseball, cycling, fencing and golf.

400-metre runner Daniel Parnell has been selected as Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­’s team captain.

The Bachelor of Business Management/Arts student said it was an honour to represent Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ at the maiden event.

“It’s a pretty special thing to be leading our team into Nationals Div 1, and something I will cherish for many years to come,” Mr Parnell said.

“The diversity of our representation across many sports is huge and says a lot about the strength and accessibility of our University’s sporting regime, as well as the support of our governing bodies.”

Parnell said he expected Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ to challenge for the overall Champion University title.

“Some of our teams – including hockey, judo, sailing, tennis, touch, and ultimate disc – won gold medals at the final Australian Uni Games event, so it’s important we get behind each and every member of Team Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­,” he said.

“Given we pretty much have a home-ground advantage, what makes us stronger as a team is the support we give each other – I’ll be making it a priority during the week to visit other venues to cheer the maroon and blue!”

Team events feature a promotion-relegation system, with the two lowest-ranked universities relegated into Nationals Div 2 the following year. 

Student Engagement Manager Adin Hewat said Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ will compete in a wide array of sports.

“For the first time at a UniSport-sanctioned event Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ will compete in kendo, while the University will feature in squash after a 13 year Uni Games absence,” she said.

“Team Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ will also compete in Rugby 7s, with the competition to be run as a Div 2 event.

“The two top-ranked universities will earn promotion to Div 1 in 2019.”

Selected Div 1 gold medal matches will be streamed live on Thursday 23 September via and pages.

Event highlights will be broadcast on Fox Sports in late 2018.

2018 UniSport Nationals Div 1 – Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ teams:

Athletics (Men & Women)

Badminton (Men & Women)

Baseball (Open)

Beach Volleyball (Men, Women & Mixed)

Cheer & Dance (Mixed)

Cycling (Men & Women)

Fencing (Men & Women)

Futsal (Men)

Golf (Men)

Handball (Mixed)

Hockey (Men)

Judo (Men & Women)

Kendo (Women)

Rowing (Men & Women)

Rugby 7s (Men – Div 2)

Sailing (Open)

Softball (Women)

Squash (Mixed)

Swimming (Men & Women)

Table Tennis (Men & Women)

Taekwondo (Men)

Tennis (Men & Women)

Touch Football (Women & Mixed)

Ultimate Disc (Men & Women)

Volleyball (Men)

Water Polo (Men)

Media: Jamie Mitchell, Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ Sport, JamieM@uqsport.com.au, 0423 785 752.