June 25, 2018, by brzmjb1

Tri Campus Games | Opening Ceremony & Day 1

The 10^th Anniversary of the Tri Campus Games officially got underway today following the opening ceremony on Sunday evening at University Park Campus, Nottingham.

180 athletes representing University of Nottingham’s three international campuses (Team UK, Team China and Team Malaysia) sat together to listen to an opening address from Tournament Director, Steve Farey and a video greeting from Vice Chancellor, Shearer West, who wished all visiting athletes the very best of luck for the forthcoming competition.

Once the team captain’s had recited the athlete oath, University of Nottingham, Director of Sport, Dan Tilley had the honour of officially announcing the 10^th  Tri Campus Games open.

Tri Campus Games 2018 Opening Ceremony at Portland Building, University of Nottingham

Earlier in the day, the athletes headed to The Studio, a flexible innovative meeting space in Portland building, to watch a screening of the World Cup match between England and Panama game which saw the three lions win 6-1 and secure progress to the last 16 of the tournament.

Overnight the teams settled into their accommodation at the athlete village on Jubilee Campus and after getting some much-needed breakfast in morning the teams headed out for their first competitive day of fixtures.

After much promise of dramatic and entertaining action the early games didn’t disappoint. In the Men’s Football, Team UK were comfortably 2-1 up but with only seconds left on the clock a needless goalkeeping error gifted the ball to a Malaysian striker who simply slotted home to bring the scores level. There was no time left on the clock for redemption and the referee blew his whistle to bring the game to an end at 2-2.

The points were shared in the Ladies squash who also registering a 2-2 draw. At 1-1 there was an unfortunate injury to Team China’s Yiting Du and as she was deemed unable to continue the game was awarded Team UK who took a slender lead. It all came down to the final match where Lucy Siyang Jiang (Team China) beat Letitia McMullan (Team UK) 0-3  to tie the match and share the points.

There was a sibling rivalry over on the Volleyball court as Ollie Douch & Adam Douch (Team Malaysia) went head-to-head in an improtu game.  The pair had not seen each other for some time and the Games has literally brought them back together.

Speaking after the match, Adam said, “It’s a pleasure be here to play against Ollie, we’ve had a competitive rivalry in sport since we much younger. This is a unique way of reuniting and we haven’t seen much of each other due to the fact that we are both studying at University of Nottingham Campuses on different sides of the world.”

Ollie Douch is set to graduate from University of Nottingham this summer with 1^st class Mathematics degree and he was equally delighted to play, saying “The Tri Campus games is brilliant and it’s been great to see my brother. This has brought us together but there’s still a debate as to who won!”

To make it a truly family affair, their father was also in the crowd in what was a special and memorable moment on the first day of the Tri Campus Games.

Malaysia edged past China in the Women’s football in a tight and tense game which finished 4-3 with Team Malaysia securing their 6^th point the day.

In the evening, Team China faced off against  Team UK in Men’s and Women’s Basketball feature game at Jubilee and it was Team China that dealt the first blow winning 48-21 in front of a healthy crowd.

However, it was to be Team UK who had the last say of the opening day with a brilliant display from the Women’s Basketball team who beat Team China 20-59.

The day will belong to Malaysia who took four of the first five points up for grabs and left team UK ruing what could have been after their two draws saw them slip to second place.

 You can look ahead to Day 2’s fixtures here or keep up to date with all the Tri Campus Games action on our Twitter and Facebook pages.

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