8,509 Participants provide the 40th Batavierenrace a New World Record

NIJMEGEN/ENSCHEDE – During the last weekend of April the 40^th Batavierenrace, an annual student relay race over 172 km, was organized in the Netherlands. Wageningen University Team has won the 40^th edition of the Batavierenrace. The winners completed the 172 kilometers in 10 hours and 29 minutes, followed by the teams of the University of Eindhoven and the University of Twente. The Impalas from England were the fastest international team. 

8.509 Participants
348 teams took part in the 40^th Batavierenrace with a total of 8,509 participants. In total, 14 international teams took part fromGermany,Slovenia andGreat Britain. With 8,509 participants the Batavierenrace broke its own world record “most participants in a relay race” and thus deserves a new entry in the Guinness Book of Records. The organization looks back on a very successful jubilee edition, where sports and fun were combined in a wonderful way. Hester de Vries, international officer of the Dutch Students Sports Association and one of the race officials of the Batavierenrace, stated:  “It was a great race with no major challenges for us during the race. With this amount of participants and volunteers it is amazing to see how everything goes so smoothly and everyone is enjoying the race with their team!”

The winning teamBatavierenrace
The Batavierenrace is an annual student relay race and exists since 1973. In total, 350 teams can participate in the Batavierenrace. With 25 participants per team, the number of participants is around 8,500 per year. With this number of participants, the Batavierenrace is mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records with “most participants in a relay race”. The race starts at the University Sportscentre in Nijmegen and goes trough Germany, the Achterhoek and Enschede. The race finishes in Enschede at the campus of the University ofTwente. After the race there is the possibility to celebrate the personal victory atEurope’s biggest student party; the Batavierenparty!

The route is divided into 25 stages, of which 17 are men’s and 8 are women’s stages. The length of these stages varies from 2.9 to 11.2 km, with the entire route of the Batavierenrace covering 172 km. Every runner is guided by a cyclist and the teams transport themselves from relay point to relay point with a minivan. Using a self-developed time registration system, every runner can see their time upon arrival and all the fans can receive the times directly via internet, sms or via an app on their phone.

The University competition is the professional classification of the race. In this competition all Universities of theNetherlands fight a fierce battle. The general competition is for all other teams participating in the Batavierenrace. Within the general competition there are several international teams participating, they also have their own ‘international competition’ to battle against the other participating countries.

The Batavierenrace is annually organized by students from different Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. The organization takes up to a year and with the help of several committees (former students) in that period and the 600 volunteers during the event itself it is the greatest annual students sport event in the Netherlands.

For more information on the Batavierenrace please contact: Jitske Nijhuis – [email protected]

(Source: Studentensport Nederland & EUSA)

An early start