{"id":4068,"date":"2016-04-25T15:30:47","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T14:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2016\/04\/25\/afzien-tijdens-koude-batavierenrace\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:14","slug":"afzien-tijdens-koude-batavierenrace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2016\/04\/25\/afzien-tijdens-koude-batavierenrace\/","title":{"rendered":"A tough time in the cold during Batavierenrace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Exhausted to the finish line. (Left) Nadezhda Ivanova of the Roadrunners. <\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEUR-Roadrunners<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Students from Nijmegen and Enschede organised the 44th<\/sup> Batavierenrace. More than\u00a08,500 students took part in the relay race between the two cities with the starting shot given at midnight on Friday.<\/p>\n

The Nijmegen-based RU\/HAN University team won the University Competition, beating out Amsterdam and Groningen. Team S.N.O.T. from Delft were the winners in the general classification of the competition with Team Cifla (Nijmegen) and Team Eindhoven finishing second and third respectively.<\/p>\n

Good company<\/h3>

Five teams from Rotterdam participated in the race including student running club EUR-Roadrunners. For president\u00a0Rosanne Baars, the good company and socialising during the event were just as important as their athletic performance (34th<\/sup> in the overall competition). \u201cWe didn\u2019t really have a sporting objective. This event is mainly a good opportunity to work on teambuilding within your own club or group. All of us took part in the event. Even though I had a deadline for my study on Sunday, I still showed up and participated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cold and tired<\/h3>

Ellen van Schie, activities officer with the swimming and water polo club Ragnar, had a tough time of it. \u201cI ran on Friday night\/Saturday morning starting at four a.m. I was still tired and just wanted to go to bed, and I was chilled to the bone. The race organisers had issued official warnings but it\u2019s always colder than you think it will be. These difficult conditions for the race are good though, because everyone participating has to deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

No EUR team<\/h3>

The Batavierenrace is the largest sporting event for students in the Netherlands. The total distance covered in the race is approximately 175 kilometres, divided into 25 legs (sixteen for men and nine for women). Each team consists of 25 runners. Every runner runs one leg of the race accompanied by a cyclist and a minibus with the rest of the team members. Moreover, each team is divided into runners who will take part by running in either the night, morning or afternoon part of the race.<\/p>\n

The race is divided into two competitions. In the University Competition, universities send their own team. In the general classification, it\u2019s literally every team for itself and even students in teams from the same university compete against each other. This year, there was no EUR university team, something that Van Schie found disappointing. \u201cAt Erasmus Sport, they\u2019re always saying they encourage elite sport. If that\u2019s the case, they should have assembled a team for this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more about previous editions of the Batavierenrace<\/h2>