GUST football team wins first place at 2017 BeST in Serbia
GUST men’s football team attended and won 1st at the 2017 Belgrade International University Sports Tournament (BeST) in Belgrade, Serbia. The tournament brought together 17 different universities from across Europe, Russia, Asia, and the Middle East to compete at an international level, experience different cultures, and forge international friendships.
The BeST tournaments have been taking place every year in Belgrade for the past nine years. This is the second year GUST has participated in this event, with two teams participating in the Men’s Football and Women’s Futsal categories, which concluded with a 3rd place win for the Men’s Football team.
On this occasion, Dean of Student Affairs, Dr Raghad Al Kazemi, said “We are very excited for this win, which is proof of our students’ dedication and persistence. This also follows the win of our women’s football team at the University Athletics Association of Kuwait (UAAK) championship this season. The sky is our limit now!” The standout team of the tournament was the GUST Men’s football team, who won 1st place at the competition, after challenging games against DIF University, Serbia, Rekreativo, Serbia, GUST, American College of Greece, and Sabanci University, Turkey, who also attended the final match against FON University, Serbia where the team won on penalties after a last minute equalizer through full time. Representatives from the Kuwaiti Embassy also attended the matches in a show of support, and to see the GUST men’s football team in action.
BeST Organizer, Sonja Milicevic, said, “It is our pleasure to host GUST’s football team at Best for a second year. We were impressed by the team’s determination and display of fair play last year, which they were able to maintain and improve this year. Seeing them turn a loss into a win in the last minute of the final game just comes to show how much practice and hard work went into their preparations. We hope to host GUST again in our upcoming tournaments with more teams and more gold.”
The team spent eight days in Belgrade, and started training right upon arrival at the FK Partizan training ground, one of the top local football clubs, which was arranged by the Kuwaiti embassy at Belgrade.
GUST Athletics Director, Craig Drennan, said, “Winning the Men’s Football Tournament in Belgrade at BeST2017 is an achievement that both GUST and Kuwait can be proud of. The win demonstrated that the skill level of our student athletes is as good as anywhere in the world and it is a credit to the dedication and hard work of the team and their coach Mohammed Jaber Al Shemmery that they prevailed to win under difficult circumstances. It goes without saying that I am incredibly proud of our team and our staff who all played an important role in this victory. I hope that we can continue to provide our student athletes with the opportunity to compete in international tournaments as they provide important competitive, educational and cultural exchanges using the international language of sport.”
Previous wins and achievements of GUST teams include a 1st place win at the 2015 UAAK Men’s Football Tournament, and another 1st place win at the 2015 UAAK Women’s Football Tournament.