This is the first time ever that an ECIU running team has been formed. ECIU (European Consortium of Innovative Universities), founded in 1997, is a group of progressive, entrepreneurial and relatively young universities that share the same values of innovation and development. The University of Twente is actually one of the founding fathers of this consortium, and so when it was time to decide how to appropriately celebrate the 55th birthday of the UT, an international ECIU Bata team seemed like a good idea.
'We hope all the flights are on time'
'We were very happy that most of the ECIU universities agreed to send on average 3 students to participate in this year´s Batavierenrace,' says Sander Lotze, the team leader. 'Most of our 25 team members are arriving on Friday especially for the race, so we hope all the flights are on time. The only people already present are UT exchange students from Mexico and several international students from Unite.'
'The participants were chosen by their respective university. I noticed that they picked mainly top-notch runners, even semi-professionals that run marathons and in national leagues, so I´m confident that we will do well in the race,' continues Lotze. 'However, Bata is mainly about fun and getting to know each other. This team also nicely showcases that the UT is an international university.' Besides the UT, the participating universities are Stavanger University, Linkoping University, Aalborg University, Kaunas University, Lodz Technical University, Southern Federal University, and Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico.
'We have a good chance of winning'
'Even though we haven´t met yet, I think we can make a really good team,' says Miquel Mariscal, a member of ECIU team from Mexico. 'My two Mexican friends and I have been training three days a week since February and we are improving. I think the rest of the team is also very well prepared. Some of the team members have an average speed of 20 km/h and seeing other runners on the track will motivate us even more. Of course we want to do well. We are only a bit worried about the weather, but I believe we have a very good chance of winning.'
