A team of more than 420 University of Queensland students and staff will descend on the Gold Coast for the first competition from 22-27 September.
390 ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ students will compete at the event – formerly known as Australian Uni Games – against participants from 43 Australian universities.
¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ will field 39 teams across 26 sports, including baseball, cycling, fencing and golf.
400-metre runner Daniel Parnell has been selected as ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ’s team captain.
The Bachelor of Business Management/Arts student said it was an honour to represent ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ at the maiden event.
“It’s a pretty special thing to be leading our team into Nationals Div 1, and something I will cherish for many years to come,” Mr Parnell said.
“The diversity of our representation across many sports is huge and says a lot about the strength and accessibility of our University’s sporting regime, as well as the support of our governing bodies.”
Parnell said he expected ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ to challenge for the overall Champion University title.
“Some of our teams – including hockey, judo, sailing, tennis, touch, and ultimate disc – won gold medals at the final Australian Uni Games event, so it’s important we get behind each and every member of Team ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ,” he said.
“Given we pretty much have a home-ground advantage, what makes us stronger as a team is the support we give each other – I’ll be making it a priority during the week to visit other venues to cheer the maroon and blue!”
Team events feature a promotion-relegation system, with the two lowest-ranked universities relegated into Nationals Div 2 the following year.
Student Engagement Manager Adin Hewat said ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ will compete in a wide array of sports.
“For the first time at a UniSport-sanctioned event ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ will compete in kendo, while the University will feature in squash after a 13 year Uni Games absence,” she said.
“Team ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ will also compete in Rugby 7s, with the competition to be run as a Div 2 event.
“The two top-ranked universities will earn promotion to Div 1 in 2019.”
Selected Div 1 gold medal matches will be streamed live on Thursday 23 September via and pages.
Event highlights will be broadcast on Fox Sports in late 2018.
2018 UniSport Nationals Div 1 – ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ teams:
Athletics (Men & Women)
Badminton (Men & Women)
Baseball (Open)
Beach Volleyball (Men, Women & Mixed)
Cheer & Dance (Mixed)
Cycling (Men & Women)
Fencing (Men & Women)
Futsal (Men)
Golf (Men)
Handball (Mixed)
Hockey (Men)
Judo (Men & Women)
Kendo (Women)
Rowing (Men & Women)
Rugby 7s (Men – Div 2)
Sailing (Open)
Softball (Women)
Squash (Mixed)
Swimming (Men & Women)
Table Tennis (Men & Women)
Taekwondo (Men)
Tennis (Men & Women)
Touch Football (Women & Mixed)
Ultimate Disc (Men & Women)
Volleyball (Men)
Water Polo (Men)
Media: Jamie Mitchell, ¿ì²¥É«ÇéƬ Sport, JamieM@uqsport.com.au, 0423 785 752.