[dropcap]A[/dropcap] team of DCU business students travelled to Germany recently, competing in the WHU Euromasters.
The WHU Euromasters is Europe’s biggest sports event for Business Schools and is organised by WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, based in Vallendar, Germany.
DCU had teams in four competitions, men’s soccer, men’s basketball, mixed relay race and cheerleading, winning the basketball title.
“I was one of the organisers for this year‘s Euromasters which is the biggest sports event for business schools in Europe,” DCU’s Benedict Feyer told The College View.
“Every year, the event takes place in Vallendar with over 2000 students and is organised by the WHU, a well-known German university.”
“It was the first time that DCU got accepted for 4 different competitions, soccer, basketball, mixed relay race & cheerleading,” Feyer said.
The basketball competition saw 14 teams compete against each other for the title, which DCU won, while the soccer tournament had 24 teams competing for the trophy.
The relay race saw two men and two women from each team run two consecutive 400 metre laps each on a course than ran along the banks on the River Rhine.
The cheerleading competition on Saturday evening then brings an end to the competitive side of Euromasters.
The 2018 Euromasters took place between Thursday, the 8th and Saturday, the 10th of November. The DCU team flew to Germany on Thursday, with competitions beginning the following morning.
“We flew to Frankfurt on Thursday during the reading week where a shuttle organised by WHU transported us to Vallendar, where all the different universities met for the first time.
“After checking-in and dancing to some live music, we already went to bed quite early since the competitions started very early on Friday morning,” Feyer said.
On the Friday, DCU won the group stages in both soccer and basketball and later competed in the mixed relay race near the River Rhine.
“Friday was a very successful day in all competitions. We came first in the group stage in soccer & basketball.
“In the evening, the relay race took place near the River Rhine and a rowing competition between other universities,” Feyer explained.
Saturday saw the soccer team’s competitions come to an early end, as they lost to the eventual Swedish finalists while the basketball dominated, going unbeaten as they won the competition, with results such as a 46-14 win over TUM from Munich.
“On Saturday morning, the soccer team got beaten by the finalist SSE (Stockholm School of Economics) and the basketball team beat every other university without any problems.”
“In the basketball final we faced ESADE, a university from Barcelona, which was very close, but a deserved victory,” Feyer said.
“We’ve been told by WHU that overall we made an amazing impression and that they would like to have us there again next year.”
“All the students were very grateful for the opportunity and had lots of fun and don’t want to miss it next year,” Feyer said.
The DCU team have been told by the organisers that they would be welcomed back to the competition next year and also received an invite from Maastricht in the Netherlands to the Royal’s Cup.
“Even some people from Maastricht have invited us to the Royal’s Cup, another sports event, in May.”
“However, I’ve already told them that DCU students have their exams during that month,” Feyer said.
Gerard Grimes
Image Credit: Wikimedia.