More than 1,500 students to participate in the international SELL Student Games in Otaniemi between May 18th and May 20th
02.05.2012
The Aalto University Otaniemi campus in Espoo will be filled with international students participating in various sports events on Friday, May 18th. Friday is the first day of the traditional SELL Student Games now being organised for the 28th time.
Almost 1,600 participants from around Europe and approximately 200 volunteers who will help to organise the event are expected to arrive in Otaniemi. The SELL Student Games event is a sports event open to all students studying at a university or a university of applied sciences. The participants will include many familiar names from international sports competitions.
During the weekend, students will compete in 14 different sports events. The list of SELL sports includes basketball, volleyball, football (7 players a side), floorball, ultimate (5 players a side), disc golf, judo, fencing, tennis, chess, badminton, orienteering, swimming and athletics.
The SELL countries (Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) take turns in hosting the annual games. This year, the games are being organised by the Aalto University Sports Club and the Aalto University Student Union. The first SELL games were held as early as in 1923. The tradition was revived at the end of the 1990s. This is the third time that Finland is hosting the “new wave” SELL games.
Most of the participants come from the SELL countries, but students in the Czech Republic and Switzerland have also become interested in the event and teams from both countries are coming to this year’s games.
Top sportsmen and women to participate
Many top sportsmen and women studying at university will participate in the games. Märt Israel from Estonia who was fourth in Daegu will participate in men's discus throw. Lithuanian Austra Skujyte, the heptathlon silver medallist from Athens, has signed up for several events.
Finland's strongest card in the games has traditionally been floorball, whereas Lithuania has one of the top teams in basketball. Excellent judo performances have also been seen. This year, one of the participants is Finnish Champion, judoka Aki Jalonen. Including fencing in the programme has also enticed Finnish Champions Suvi Lehtonen and Niko Vuorinen to participate in the games.
Some of the Finnish athletes beginning their season at the SELL games include Matilda Bogdanoff (100 m hurdles, long jump), Janica Mäkelä (3000 m), Heidi Pappila (400 m, 800 m, 1500 m), Laura Rautanen (high jump) and Tuomo Salonen (800 m, 1500 m).
SELL Student Games Seminar on sustainable event production
This year's SELL games have been awarded the Finnish Sports Federation's ecolabel for the first time in the event's history. The games are being held in accordance with the principles of sustainable development.
The participants will use public transport and recycling has been taken care of at accommodation locations. Meal services and other acquisitions (e.g. the medals) will be carried out as sustainably as possible.
In accordance with the environmentally friendly theme of the games, the organisers and Aalto University will hold a seminar discussing the environmental programme of a sports event on May 18th, the first day of the games. The seminar will discuss sustainable event production and use the SELL Games as an example. The seminar is open to everyone interested in the subject. It will be held at the Dipoli auditorium (Otakaari 24, Espoo) between 3.30 p.m. and 5 p.m.
All SELL sports events are open to the public and free of charge.
More information about the games (sell2012.fi). You can also follow SELL Student Games on Facebook.
More information:
Ulla Tuomainen
Press Officer
tel. +358 50 520 9452
ulla.tuomainen [at] sell2012 [dot] fi
Hille Häkkinen
Specialist, Environmental Issues
tel. +358 50 407 1884
hille.hakkinen [at] sell2012 [dot] fi
