TU Delft recently hosted the 28th annual International Sports Day. Delft was hoping to win its first-ever overall championship. But better luck next year.
“The overall championship is basically going back and forth between two institutes and this is not fair!” said TU Delft’s Executive Board vice-president, Paul Rullmann, during his welcoming speech at the start of International Sports Day, which TU Delft hosted on March 25. Rullman was referring to the fact that in the 28 years the event’s been held, ITC Enschede has won the championship 16 times, and IHE Delft nine times.
TU Delft has never won the overall championship, but Rullman’s comments seemed further proof that this year TU Delft’s teams were determined to win the title on their home turf. TU Delft had eight teams competing, a team for each sport in the competition: soccer, basketball, volleyball, badminton, dart, chess, table tennis and running.
Thanks to the advantage of organizing the event, there were more TU Delft supporters on hand this year to cheer the TU’s athletes on than in previous years. After all the teams warmed up in the Sports Centre Hall, the games began with a full session of morning qualification rounds. The leading teams in their respective groups qualified for the finals, which were held in the afternoon.
During the lunch break, Bart van Beek, the 2004 Dutch National Champion of Outdoor Frisbee, gave a Frisbee workshop. Van Beek showed the participants how to aim and throw a Frisbee, as well as explaining some techniques and rules of the Outdoor Frisbee game. Unfortunately, Dutch weather isn’t particularly conducive to flinging plastic discs around, especially on the Sports Centre’s open, outdoor fields where the workshop was held. A stiff Dutch wind ensured that Frisbees were indeed flying all over the place, but rarely in the general direction of where they were aimed!
Hard game
At three o’ clock in the afternoon, with the qualification rounds completed, it was time for the finals. TU Delft’s Basketball team played MEL Rotterdam in the finals. “We had already played them during the qualification round, so we knew beforehand that the final would be tough game,” said Marije van der Haag, the coach of TU Delft’s basketball team.
Van Der Haag was unhappy with the fact that the final game was shortened to just 12 minutes, instead of being the length of a normal basketball game, which consists of four quarters, each quarter lasting 10 minutes. But nevertheless the TU Delft team prevailed, winning the final easily by a score of 16-6, in front of about 50 cheering supporters.
“For the first five minutes it was a hard game. Some of my players were a bit over-excited, but later, we settled down and played good basketball,” Van Der Haag said. “I must say though that TU Delft winning the basketball final of International Sports Day is almost like a tradition for us. We won the basketball cup many times before, and this year was no exception.”
The next final was for volleyball, and this time TU Delft was taking on sporting powerhouse ITC Enschede, 16-time winner of the overall International Sports Day cup. “The qualification games were quite easy, but we knew that the final against Enschede would be our toughest match thus far,” said Lech Grzelak, a TU Delft volleyball team member from Poland. Indeed, ITC Enschede crushed TU Delft, wining the final by a score of 25-12. Fatigue from the qualification round games apparently played a part in Delft’s lopsided loss, but the Enschede players were noticeably much larger than Delft’s and hardly missed a winning smash during the final match.
The games ended with the teams gathering in the Sports Centre’s cafe for dinner, and the awarding of the prizes by Raymond Browne, director of the Sports Centre. This was followed by a disco party with DJ and drinks, with the teams partying and talking about their competition between the lines until late into the night.
ITC Enschede failed to add to its impressive victory total, coming in second place to this year’s overall champion ISS Den Haag, which hadn’t won the overall title since 1980. TU Delft finished in a very respectable third place. TU Delft placed first in the basketball competition, second in volleyball and badminton, and third in table tennis.
“We had some doubts about the organization, about for instance how the referees would be organized, but everything went real nice and easy,” said Súphan Nakiboğlu, from Turkey, and a member of the HIS Rotterdam volleyball team. “Although my team lost the semifinals in the last minute, I had so much fun today!”
Sports Day athletes in action (Photo collage: Juan S. Sanchez, MSc, Colombia)
Competing universities and institutes:
PTC Barneveld . Media Education Centre
RNTC Hilversum . Radio Nederland Training Center
IHS Rotterdam . Institute Housing & Urban Studies
IHE Delft . Unesco Institute for Water Education
ISS Den Haag . Institute Social Studies
TU Twente . Twente University of technology
MEL Rotterdam . Maritime Economics & Logistics Studies
ITC Enschede . International Institute for Science
TU Delft . Delft University of Technology
Of the teams from the nine Dutch universities and institutes competing, TU Delft finished in third place, behind the champions ISS Den Haag and the runners-up ITC Enschede.
“The overall championship is basically going back and forth between two institutes and this is not fair!” said TU Delft’s Executive Board vice-president, Paul Rullmann, during his welcoming speech at the start of International Sports Day, which TU Delft hosted on March 25. Rullman was referring to the fact that in the 28 years the event’s been held, ITC Enschede has won the championship 16 times, and IHE Delft nine times.
TU Delft has never won the overall championship, but Rullman’s comments seemed further proof that this year TU Delft’s teams were determined to win the title on their home turf. TU Delft had eight teams competing, a team for each sport in the competition: soccer, basketball, volleyball, badminton, dart, chess, table tennis and running.
Thanks to the advantage of organizing the event, there were more TU Delft supporters on hand this year to cheer the TU’s athletes on than in previous years. After all the teams warmed up in the Sports Centre Hall, the games began with a full session of morning qualification rounds. The leading teams in their respective groups qualified for the finals, which were held in the afternoon.
During the lunch break, Bart van Beek, the 2004 Dutch National Champion of Outdoor Frisbee, gave a Frisbee workshop. Van Beek showed the participants how to aim and throw a Frisbee, as well as explaining some techniques and rules of the Outdoor Frisbee game. Unfortunately, Dutch weather isn’t particularly conducive to flinging plastic discs around, especially on the Sports Centre’s open, outdoor fields where the workshop was held. A stiff Dutch wind ensured that Frisbees were indeed flying all over the place, but rarely in the general direction of where they were aimed!
Hard game
At three o’ clock in the afternoon, with the qualification rounds completed, it was time for the finals. TU Delft’s Basketball team played MEL Rotterdam in the finals. “We had already played them during the qualification round, so we knew beforehand that the final would be tough game,” said Marije van der Laag, the coach of TU Delft’s basketball team.
Van Der Laag was unhappy with the fact that the final game was shortened to just 12 minutes, instead of being the length of a normal basketball game, which consists of four quarters, each quarter lasting 10 minutes. But nevertheless the TU Delft team prevailed, winning the final easily by a score of 16-6, in front of about 50 cheering supporters.
“For the first five minutes it was a hard game. Some of my players were a bit over-excited, but later, we settled down and played good basketball,” Van Der Laag said. “I must say though that TU Delft winning the basketball final of International Sports Day is almost like a tradition for us. We won the basketball cup many times before, and this year was no exception.”
The next final was for volleyball, and this time TU Delft was taking on sporting powerhouse ITC Enschede, 16-time winner of the overall International Sports Day cup. “The qualification games were quite easy, but we knew that the final against Enschede would be our toughest match thus far,” said Lech Grzelak, a TU Delft volleyball team member from Poland. Indeed, ITC Enschede crushed TU Delft, wining the final by a score of 25-12. Fatigue from the qualification round games apparently played a part in Delft’s lopsided loss, but the Enschede players were noticeably much larger than Delft’s and hardly missed a winning smash during the final match.
The games ended with the teams gathering in the Sports Centre’s cafe for dinner, and the awarding of the prizes by Raymond Browne, director of the Sports Centre. This was followed by a disco party with DJ and drinks, with the teams partying and talking about their competition between the lines until late into the night.
ITC Enschede failed to add to its impressive victory total, coming in second place to this year’s overall champion ISS Den Haag, which hadn’t won the overall title since 1980. TU Delft finished in a very respectable third place. TU Delft placed first in the basketball competition, second in volleyball and badminton, and third in table tennis.
“We had some doubts about the organization, about for instance how the referees would be organized, but everything went real nice and easy,” said Súphan Nakiboğlu, from Turkey, and a member of the HIS Rotterdam volleyball team. “Although my team lost the semifinals in the last minute, I had so much fun today!”
Competing universities and institutes:
- PTC Barneveld . Media Education Centre
- RNTC Hilversum . Radio Nederland Training Center
- IHS Rotterdam . Institute Housing & Urban Studies
- IHE Delft . Unesco Institute for Water Education
- ISS Den Haag . Institute Social Studies
- TU Twente . Twente University of technology
- MEL Rotterdam . Maritime Economics & Logistics Studies
- ITC Enschede . International Institute for Science
- TU Delft . Delft University of Technology
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