In just about three weeks, university students the world over will step out as one and celebrate the International Day of University Sport. In its fourth edition now, IDUS has mobilised students and encouraged them to embrace physical activity as a part of their daily campus lives. 2019 will be no different as National University Sports Federations (NUSF) are pulling out all stops to ensure that 20 September 2019 will be a day to remember.
NUSFs in Oceania are gearing up with a whole host of activities and competitions to mark and celebrate the day. In Australia, the day is just prior to their major event – the Div 1 Nationals – so the timing could not be more perfect. Over in New Zealand, IDUS will be celebrated by each of the eight universities by holding a university sporting clash.
“The student commission here in New Zealand have worked extremely hard to prepare for IDUS across all campuses,” says Sarah Anderson, Executive Officer of University Tertiary Sport New Zealand. “They are excited to share how sport enriches the wellbeing of university students and to show how activity can promote healthy students.”
In Papua New Guinea too, there will be an intervarsity sport competition in the towns of Port Moresby and Lae.
“Students are always excited about intervarsity sport competitions and to combine one of our competitions with IDUS means we can further promote university sport to more students and to the community,” says Cornelius Papau, Manager of High Performance Division, PNG Sports Foundation and Secretary of Papua New Guinea Sports Association.
Papua New Guinea have also included an educational component which will see a key leader from the community come to the venue prior to the sport, to talk to the students about leadership through sport and how it can help contribute to their village and communities.
New Caledonia will be hosting a variety of sport activities with the main focus on Teqball at the campus in Noumea. The event will also include a showcase of cultural activities.
Fiji are going one better by hosting the Fiji Inter Tertiary Games from 19-21 September and this will include competitions in 12 different sports, attracting over 3000 students.
“IDUS coincides with the Fiji Inter Tertiary Games which is a great celebration for students who play sport here in Fiji,” says Alifereti Cawanibuka, President of Fiji University Sports Association. “We will be celebrating the day with formal and informal activities that will allow us to showcase university sport to government and university representatives.”
In Fiji, the icing on the cake will literally be… cake for everyone to share! In total, across Oceania, more than 10,000 university students are expected to participate with over 5,000 in Australia alone. Representatives of the University Sport family recently attended the FISU Oceania MyUniSport workshop (below) where they planned on collaboration and agreed to send their teams to attend the Fiji Inter Tertiary Games and be present at the event during IDUS.
