The teams for the World University Games have been announced. Held every two years the Games are the third largest multi-sport event in the world; the only bigger ones are the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games themselves. This year the Games are being held in Belgrade, Serbia and will run from the 1st to the 13th July. 7, 000 athletes from 130 nations will compete in fifteen different sports and Great Britain is sending out 190 of its best to compete in eleven different sports.

One of these is football and Team GBR Head Coach Graeme Dell last week announced a team that included King’s College London student Matthew Townley. The players found out eight weeks ago and, understandably, Townley was delighted to have received the call up. “Not only is it pretty much the highest level you can play as a student but also it is a great honour to be able to represent Great Britain”.

Townley is one of eight players who were also selected for the last games in Bangkok two years ago and his memories of that event are full of positives: “I can honestly say it was one of the best experiences of my life and this is why I am so excited about going for a second time”. That year GBR got to quarter finals, having topped their pool but lost out in the quarter finals to Canada who scored an agonising goal in the last five minutes to triumph 1 – 0. “The disappointment of missing out on a medal match in this way is something we do not want to repeat again and is certainly a great motivation for the 7 returning members of the squad from the last games,” he said.

Graeme Dell also sees this added experience as essential to the makeup of the squad: “We have to look at a four year cycle with these players, and playing just once isn’t the answer. We have to be thorough in our scouting process and we need experienced players to come back stronger and improved two years later and these lads have all done that.”

This year Townley has been playing well for Team Bath FC, a team that had consolidated its position mid table in the Blue Square after rising three leagues in five seasons. But Townley has seen all that hard work come to nothing as Bath has had to withdraw from the league as the financial downturn hit the smaller clubs: “After spending five good years at Team Bath which saw us… reach the FA cup first round proper twice it was a shame to see all that hard work go to waste”. Selection for the Games has more than lifted his spirits though, especially since this time round his ever-supportive father will be able to come out to cheer him on.

“With the games being in Bangkok last time it was just a little too far for him to come and watch, so he jumped at the chance to come and watch the games this time out and he is going to fly out for the 3rd, 4th and 5th games of the tournament,” said Townley.

The team is well aware of the challenge facing them. Their pool contains Mexico, Ghana and hosts Serbia, all strong teams and Townley expects a particularly tough encounter against Serbia “made more difficult playing in front of what is expected to be a very large home crowd”.

The team’s confidence is running high after an encouraging 2 – 0 warm up win against TNS. They have been training for eight days at Lilleshal and Townley is brimming with optimism after seeing his teammates come together so strongly: “The 8 days spent together in Lilleshall has brought the team together well. After a few days the lads had gelled and there was some good banter flying about between us all. I was really impressed by some of the quality we have in the squad and that, coupled with the fact that we were all getting on so well hopefully bodes very well for the tournament as we will certainly need some strong spirit of we are to be successful”.

His head coach, Dell, shares his enthusiasm: “This squad has lots of potential and I have every confidence in the players I’ve selected and I am excited to work with them. This is a tough competition where we have to be resilient and I have selected an athletic squad of talented players who all have potential. This is an opportunity to play on a world stage and these players will, I am sure, grasp that opportunity to catapult their careers to the next level.”.

A top two place in Pool A would ensure progress to the top 8 and secure inclusion for the Games in 2011 so there is everything to play for. Townley flies out to Belgrade today, pulsing with excitement: “The atmosphere around the village and city in general will be buzzing and only contributes further to the experience”.

The other sports in the tournament with British interest are archery, artistic gymnastics, basketball (women), diving, fencing, women’s football, judo, swimming, taekwondo, tennis and volleyball (men and women), and Townley is looking forward to mingling with this variety of sports-stars. “Being a multisport event gives a good opportunity to go and support some of the other Great Britain teams… there is a real camaraderie between different teams and sports as we all represent Great Britain and are aware of the privilege at being selected to do so”.

So does Townley think they can go one better this time? “The standard of competition in the games is exceptional… if we can get out of our group and into the last 8, remain focussed, stick to the task and get a bit of luck along the way we may get a shot at a medal. But it is going to be tough”.

Tags: matthew townsley, team GBR, world university games

This entry was posted on Friday, June 26th, 2009 at 12:20 and is filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.