From Court to Connections: Celebrating International Students at the Victorian Sport Festival

More than 150 international students from 18 countries and 12 educational institutions converged on the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre on Saturday for the inaugural Victorian International Student Sport Festival.

The event, held to provide an opportunity to celebrate and showcase the diversity of all international students, saw participants play in either a competitive 3×3 basketball competition or fun, friendly, social badminton games.

Image credit: EXP Media

UniSport Australia partnered with AIBA to deliver the event, which was able to be offered to students free of charge, thanks to the support of the Australian Sports Commission.

One of the best parts of the day was seeing international students who hadn’t previously met, coming together to socialise and form new connections, helping to promote inclusion and acceptance and foster a sense of belonging.

The 3×3 Basketball competition saw 17 open-gender teams compete in a series of pool games, before the top teams played off in a finals series. The ‘Blitzer’ team were crowned champions on the day, winning $350 prize money. The Melbourne Basketball Bears were their opponents in the grand final, going down 11-10 in a tight game and claiming $150 for being runners-up. AIBA, who run the Perfect Ballers Association Bounty League, generously donated the prize money.

VISSF 3×3 Basketball Champions – Blitzer

Between the pool games and the finals, a 3-point competition was held, with one player from each team given one minute to shoot as many three pointers as possible. Two $100 New Balance vouchers were on the line for the top two shooters. Herman Mau from the DFW Asian B team shot seven baskets to claim the title. Both Wen Gu and Jessie Tan shot six baskets each, with Wen Gu coming out on top in an extra tiebreaker to claim the second New Balance voucher.

Click here to view all of the results from the 3×3 Basketball competition.

Over 80 international students enjoyed the social badminton games, with two separate sessions held in the afternoon to accommodate the demand.

Image credit: EXP Media

UniSport Australia looks forward to running the Victorian International Student Sport Festival again in 2025, building on the success of the inaugural event to make it bigger and better next year.

About UniSport

UniSport Australia (UniSport) is the peak body for university sport in Australia. 42 universities are members of UniSport, representing a population of over one million students. UniSport’s ambition is to become an integral partner of Australian universities to deliver an outstanding student experience at our national intervarsity sports competitions. UniSport is also committed to advocate on the value of sport on student experience.

More information on UniSport: www.unisport.com.au

For more information please contact:

Shane Cantelmi

Manager – Member Services

Email: shane.cantelmi@unisport.com.au