The finals of the 3x3 World University League have concluded in Xiamen, China, with 16 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams representing their universities and producing thrilling basketball action.
In the women’s bracket, the Lithuanian Sport University emerged victorious from its final with the University of Regina, as Chinese Culture University defeated the University of Sydney to take the remaining spot on the podium.
In the men’s bracket, McGill University beat the University of Bordeaux to win, with the University of Kragujevac taking third place.
"It was a great pleasure to personally experience the action in Xiamen this weekend, as universities from around the world came together and played some great basketball," said FISU President Oleg Matytsin.
"This event has further demonstrated FISU’s way forward for University sport, with athletes competing directly for their universities instead of competing for their countries. 3x3 is a great innovation on the part of FIBA and it is the ideal sporting format for a World University League."
As a more accessible basketball discipline, 3x3 tournaments consistently bring together diverse groups of players. At FISU’s 3x3 World University League finals, universities from five different countries shared the six podium places. In addition to relatively new institutions like host university Huaqiao University, the tournament also featured Oxford University – currently ranked first in the Times Higher Education rankings – and Indiana University, whose basketball history dates back almost to the invention of the sport in the 19th century.
"Making sport more attractive to young people is particularly important to us at FISU," President Matytsin added. "FISU has found that the combination of music, entertainment, social media and the opportunity to play sport informally is important in motivating the current generation of students to choose sport as a recreational activity. These factors are all present in 3x3 basketball. Following the success with 3x3, FISU is looking to expand the World University League concept to other team sports and expects to have positive news to announce in the coming months."
Ivan Jukić from the University of Split finished as the top scorer in the men’s competition with 42 points overall. And in the women’s competition it was Laura Svaryte from the Lithuanian Sport University who finished as top scorer with 53 points.
In the dunk contest, Tonny Drileba from Makerere University took the gold medal with Marcel Bray from the University of Sydney and Pedro Amoros Rittel from the National University of La Matanza taking silver and bronze respectively.
In the shoot-out contest, Ursa Zibert from the University of Ljubljana won the title, with Elena Kozheporova from Magnitogorsk State University taking silver and Zhang Jingyi from Beijing Normal University taking bronze.
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