Otago University's domination of water sports played a key
role in Invercargill yesterday when it won the New Zealand
University Games Shield for the 36th time.
The shield is awarded to the overall champion and was first
presented in 1923. Otago last won the shield when it was held
in Dunedin in 2004.
The University Games was held in Invercargill for the first
time this week and Otago University won the event with 161
points from Auckland University (116) and Canterbury
University (83).
"It's no surprise really. We've got an awesome team and we
were pretty sure that we were going to win it," Otago
University Students Association president Harriet Geoghegan
said at last night's prizegiving.
Otago's dominance started with the rowing at Lake Waihola
last weekend when it scored 115 points to beat Canterbury on
65 and Auckland on 12.
That dominance was continued in the water sports in
Invercargill, with Otago making a clean sweep of the short
board surfing. It was won by Tom Grooten followed by Patrick
Dymond and Michael Kibblewhite.
Otago students also made a clean sweep of the men's
multisport that consisted of a paddle, bike ride and run.
It was won by Blake Luff in 1hr 45min 18sec and he was
followed home by Daniel Peacock and Philip Pirie.
Otago filled the top two places in the women's aquathon with
Bex Grant winning from Laura Smith.
It is a new sport on the programme and consists of a 750m
swim and a 4km run.
Grace Fursdon won the women's cross-country in 15min 26sec
and Shaun Burgess (Otago Polytechnic) the men's race in 19min
52sec.
Otago University won the men's badminton team event from
Auckland and Massey.
The Otago women's hockey team was dominant and beat Waikato
17-0 in the first game and 14-0 in the second game.
It also beat the Southland Institute of Technology 5-1.
Shannan Miller (Otago Polytechnic) won a gold medal in the
women's mountain bike downhill in 2min 0.73sec and Matt Dodds
(Otago University) was second in the men's mountain bike
cross-country in 1hr 11min 20sec.
James Grant was runner-up in the men's 500m time trial in
cycling in 38.57sec.
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