Yang yearns for Universiade gold and Emerging Opals go 2-0 

Swimming – It was a hot, humid and loud day one in the pool and 12 of the 26-strong swim team made their 2019 Napoli Summer Universiade debuts.

In his first major international event William Yang (Sydney University) qualified fastest for Friday’s 50m butterfly, overcoming 33 degree heat and loud conditions of the venue.

“This is his first exposure. This is a big thing for him. It’s a big occasion and probably didn’t realise what it was going to be like until he got here and it’s different on the day when you’re exposed and the pressure’s there to be able to cope with that,” head coach Leigh Nugent said.

Yang finished strong in the 50m butterfly semis where he qualified in the fastest time of 23:39, but struggled in the 100m backstroke semifinal where he finished 15th in 55.25.

“It’s a great learning experience for him. He’s got the final of the 50m butterfly tomorrow night and we will see what he can do,” Nugent said.

Yang’s time is 0.22 ahead of his nearest rival, Yuna Tanaka of Japan, so will head to Friday’s final as a strong favourite.

CLICK HERE to watch Yang’s semifinal win.

After qualifying 7th in the 400m IM Deakin University health student Sophie Caldwell finished 6th in a time of 4:46.22 in the final in a controversial race after Abbie Wood from Great Britain missed the gun and never entered the pool. The race was completed under protest.

· Both the men’s and women’s 4x100m relay team qualified for the final, but had a rough time backing it up in the afternoon session. The women’s team made up of Julia Hawkins (Monash University), Dahlas Rogers (The University of the Sunshine Coast), Mikayla Messer (Griffith University) and Alice Stuart (Griffith University) finished in 6th in 3:46.63 and the men’s team made up of Ashton Brinkworth (University of Western Australia), Benno Negri (Monash University), William Stockwell (University of Queensland) and Max Carelton (Queensland University of Technology) finished in 8th in 3:18.76.

· The University of Wisconsin’s Cam Tysoe just missed the final in the 100m backstroke coming 9th in 54.87.

· Greyson Bell (Griffith University) finished 16th in 1:01.69 in a tight 100m breaststroke semifinal.

· Calypso McDonnell (Northwestern University) finished 16th in the 200m backstroke in a time of 2:16.93.

· Olympian Jacob Hansford (Business, Australian College of Physical Education) kicked off the UniRoos swim team’s campaign in the 400m freestyle prelims finishing 15th in 3:54.43.

· Griffith University commerce student Joshua Parrish also competed in the 400m freestyle prelims and finished 10th in 3:52.04, just missing out on qualifying for the final.

· Alice Stuart (Health, Griffith University) took to the pool in the 50m butterfly finishing 31st in 27.75.

The 50m butterfly is the afternoon session starting from 18:00 CEST (2:00 AEST) on Friday 5th July. All semifinals and finals will be live streamed via FISU, the Olympic Channel and on Eurosport.

Gymnastics – The men’s artistic team, Michael Tone (Business, Queensland University of Technology), Hudson Irwin (Business, The University of Queensland), and Heath Thorpe (Communications, Queensland University of Technology), finished the team final in 8th place.

In the individual events Michael Tone qualified for the finals in the all-around competition coming in 20th with a score of 78.7000 and the pommel horse after finishing 5th with a score of 13.950, while Heath Thorpe performed well to make the final of the vault after finishing 8th with a score of 13.800.

The finals for the all-around is on Saturday 6 July at 14:00 CEST (22:00 AEST), and on Sunday 7 July the pommel and vault finals will be held from 12:00 CEST (20:00 AEST).

Basketball – The Emerging Opals have won their second game in as many days, defeating Canada 85-51. The team showed off their depth across the roster with four players scoring double digit points led by Keely Froling (University of Canberra) with 20. Ezi Magbegor (Deakin University) was also damaging, recording a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds including 4 offensive rebounds.

Australia will look to continue on their winning ways when they take on China in their 3rd group match play on Friday 5 July at 10:30am CEST (18:30 AEST).

The Emerging Boomers dropped their first game of the Universaide to gold medal favourites Israel falling 92-64.

Australia struggled to get open looks from beyond the 3-point line, going just 3-14 from beyond the arc. Going in at half-time down 10 points, the Israeli class began to show in the second half despite some true grit shown from the Australian team. Dejan Vasiljevic (University of Miami) was important with 14-points, while captain Jack White was strong on the boards with 6 rebounds.

Australia will look to rebound in their next game when they take on Mexico on Friday (July 5th) at 10:30am CEST (18:30 AEST).

Click here to read the full report from Basketball Australia.

Water Polo – The UniRoos men’s water polo team have posted their first victory of Napoli 2019, coming out 15-14 a tight match against Japan. In a see-sawing affair, the Japanese team took an 8-7 lead into half-time before Australia came out firing in the second half to take a 15-13 advantage before the Japanese pulled one back to ensure a frantic final minute of action. Australia managed to hold on and get on the board in their group. Angus Lambie (UNSW Sydney) was instrumental with 5 goals. The team will face off against the host nation Italy in their next match on Friday 5 July at 19:30pm CEST (3:30 AEST).

Diving – Adelaide University science student Nikita Hains finished 9th in the 10m platform final with a total of 242.70 points. After qualifying in 13th place for the 3m springboard semifinals Nicholas Jeffree (University of Technology Sydney) finished in 15th place with a total of 301.30.

Table Tennis – The men’s and women’s table tennis teams kicked off their 2019 Napoli Summer Universiade on Thursday 4 July.

The women’s team of Antonia Zhang (Sport / Event Management, University of Technology Sydney) Sarah Tan (Law, The University of Sydney) and Georgina Newton (Science, The University of Tasmania) went down to both Hong Kong and Russia 3-0. The men’s team of Steven Phan (Health, The University of Melbourne), Edward Belokopytov (Engineering, UNSW Sydney) and Anthony Majtlis (Engineering, Monash University) also went down 3-0 against China in their first match.

Both teams are back on the table Friday starting at 10:00 CEST (18:00 AEST) to finish the first round of play.

Shooting – Flinders University science student Emma Adams finished 50th out of 70 in the women’s 10m rifle.

Fencing – In women’s epee, Queensland University of Technology health student Madeleine Andersen didn’t make it out of pool rounds splitting her bouts with a win against Kazakhstan 15-13 and a loss to Finland 15-7 to finish 27th overall.