AVEIRO – The 9th Portugal University Sports Ceremony tooked place on Tuesday, 8 November, at Teatro Aveirense in Aveiro and was attended by more than three hundred people, in a symbolic place for the Portugal University Sports Federation. It was at Aveiro, in 1990, that FADU was founded, and the mayor of the city, José Ribau Esteves, was part of the first management team.
The Portugal University Sports ceremony ended the 2015/2016 season, honoring all athletes with medals at the European University Games and the World University Championships, as well as the local organizations of the national university championships and international organizations in Portugal. Due to the 28 medals won in international events, with nine of them to be gold, a lot of athletes stepped on stage at Aveiro.
At the night of student-athlete tribute, the awards of the National Sports Ethics Plan (PNED) and the Jogos Santa Casa – Dual Career Award were also handed out.
Regarding to the Best of the Year awards, Júlio Ferreira won ‘Best Men’s Athlete’, after winning EUC and EUG titles in Taekwondo. Bárbara Luz won the ‘Best Women’s Athlete’. She’s was part of the national champion team and the European champion team. Football 11 from AAUM won the ‘Best Male Team’, due to the first place at national and European games. Rugby 7s from U. Porto won ‘Best Women’s Team’, with the national championship and the bronze medal at EUG 2016. Finally, the ‘Best Coach’ award went to Hugo Serrão, with four gold medals at EUG2016 and six at the national championships.
FADU also decided to assign the ‘Prestigious Award’ to the Portuguese Canoe Federation, for the importance of the federation at the World University Canoe Championship.
At the end of the ceremony, the president of FADU, Daniel Monteiro revealed that the former Olympic athlete and medalist at the Universiade of Tokyo in 2001, Susana Feitor, will be the head of the Portuguese delegation to the 2017 Summer Universiade in Taipei. For Daniel Monteiro, Susana Feitor is an ‘icon of national sport’ and an important asset to student-athletes who will participate in the largest multi-sport university event in the world.
In his closing speech, Daniel Monteiro also emphasized the commitment of college institutions in sport, providing them “more resources and better resources, and creating conditions for sports agents.” For the leader of the Portugal University Sports Federation, “when there is so much talk about a generalized crisis that affects the national sports system, I believe that here exists a good solution to the problem.” For the next season, Daniel Monteiro pretends to maintain “the ambition and the desire to do more, despite adversities, intending to reach to more students, not only for the competitive way of the National University Championships, but also strengthening recreational sport in each academy and between academies.”
The 9th Portugal University Sports Ceremony was presented by Miguel Torrão, journalist and Ercília Machado, a university athlete and athlete of Sporting Clube de Portugal. The cerimony also counted with the perfomances of the Academic Choir of the Universidade do Minho, the Escola. Gimnica de Aveiro and Rui Paixão.
(Source: FADU)