One of the biggest student sports events in the Baltic States, the 39th SELL Student Games, starts this week, from May 16-19. Over 1,300 participants from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Italy, Slovakia, and Romania are expected in Kaunas this weekend, representing 36 universities. The games will take place at the sports facilities of Lithuanian Sport University, Kaunas University of Technology, Vytautas Magnus University, Žalgiris Arena swimming pool, Birštonas Sports Centre stadium, and Boulder House climbing centre.
This year, Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) will be represented at the SELL Games by a delegation of over 120 athletes, who are delighted that many of the sports matches will be held in the familiar VMU sports facilities.
VMU students will compete in athletics, swimming, sports climbing, orienteering, chess, judo, badminton, table tennis, volleyball, beach volleyball, basketball, 3×3 basketball, and mini football (7×7).
On the 17th-18th, badminton tournaments will be held in the hall of the VMU Sports Center (Studentų St. 11, Akademija, Kaunas district), and on the 19th, the indoor volleyball finals will be played. Throughout all three days of the games, from the 17th-19th, basketball and mini-football (7×7) games will be held in the VMU President Valdas Adamkus Sports Center (Studentų St. 9A, Akademija, Kaunas district). Additionally, on the 17th-18th, there will be 3×3 basketball competitions and beach volleyball matches. On the last day of the Games, the 19th, at 15:00, the closing and awarding ceremonies will take place in the VMU President Valdas Adamkus Sports Center.
Indrė Čelkienė, President of the Lithuanian Student Sports Association (LSSA), which organizes SELL Student Games, expressed her pleasure that the traditions are continuing and that Kaunas is hosting the Games for the 39th time. “There were many challenges in organizing the Games, but we received a lot of support from the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, Kaunas Municipality, and the university community, thanks to which we can be happy that an event of such a large scale will take place in Kaunas. We are delighted with the ever-improving sports facilities at the universities, which are almost fully capable of hosting the Games with 15 sports. It will be a real celebration for students, which I believe we will be proud of in the future.”
As a reminder, the SELL Student Games are an annual multi-sport event for Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian students, which started in 1923 when the Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian Student Unions established a cooperation program in Tartu, Estonia, on April 11. In the autumn of the same year, the first Baltic Student Olympic Games were held in Tartu. Later on, the Games were called the SELL Games (an abbreviation for the four countries: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). The 2023 SELL Games in Tartu, Estonia, marked the 100th anniversary of the event, and a delegation of VMU athletes took home 45 medals from the anniversary Games.
