12 September 2011. The Université de Poitiers beat Moscow in the men’s tennis, and the Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics beat Wroclaw in the women’s tennis, thus winning the final matches and the gold medals.

The team of the host, St.Gallen, with David Zogg, Luca Bianchi and Andreas Wacker rather unluckily failed to reach the final round. In the pool for 9th to 12th place, they beat Warsaw and Cyprus University but lost against Marmara University (Turkey), thus ending up in 10th place, as can be seen from the final rankings.

Thanks to the volunteers

At the closing ceremony, OC Chairman Daniel Studer expressed his pleasure at the smooth and accident-free run of the one-week tournament. “Special thanks are due to the 50 volunteers, some HSG students, some external volunteers, who helped almost around the clock to deal with the organisation of this large-scale event.” 23 teams from 17 universities in 12 countries participated in the European Universities Tennis Championship in St.Gallen, played 185 matches on 7 courts, used up 786 balls in the process and drank almost 1,500 litres of water.

Approving words

In his speech at the closing ceremony, Olaf Tabor, Delegate of the European University Sports Association, praised the excellent organisation of the tournament by the HSG’s Unisport. The team of the University of St.Gallen had set exacting standards and definitely put itself in a position to organise another European championship, said Tabor approvingly – a remark also aimed at the HSG’s Director of Administration, Markus Brönnimann.

The Chairman of the Cantonal Parliament and member of the University’s Board of Governors, Karl Güntzel, thanked the 70 players and 20 coaches for their participation in the St.Gallen tournament and expressed his hope that they had not only been able to gain valuable experience in their sport but would also take home lasting impressions of St.Gallen and its surroundings. The European Championship came to a pleasant conclusion with a banquet on the Executive Campus HSG and the subsequent Players' Party, which lasted into the early hours of the morning.

Photo: Sonia Sorensen