Five University of Guelph varsity student-athletes – all women – will represent Team Canada in the 2019 FISU Summer Universiade in Naples, Italy, this summer along with two Guelph Gryphons coaches.
U Sports announced this week that the athletes and coaches were selected to attend the event, which takes place between July 3 and 14.
They include Zoe Sherar, a sprinter who’s becoming one of the fastest in Canada in the 400-metre event, and Jenna Westaway, who recently broke the 800-metre Canadian record.
Julia Schell and Talia Hoffman will join the Team Canada Women’s Rugby 7’s team, while Victoria Hinchliffe will join Canada’s women’s soccer team. U of G will also be represented in artistic gymnastics by biological science student Jessica Dowling.
A pair of decorated U of G coaches will also head overseas: Dave Scott-Thomas, who coaches athletics; and Colette McAuley, who coaches women’s rugby 7’s.
Onkar Dhillon, an assistant coach with the Gryphons women’s soccer program, will head to Italy as an assistant coach with the Team Canada women’s soccer team, while Brenda Scott-Thomas, long-time athletic therapist with the Gryphon track and cross-country programs, will serve as the physiotherapist for Team Canada in athletics.
The FISU Summer Universiade is considered the “Olympics” of university sport and will see more than 9,300 athletes from 128 countries competing.