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Flourish of medals for ESRF after Summer Atomiade

09-06-2015

The 15th edition of the ASCERI Summer Atomiade brought together more than 1200 competitors from 37 research institutes across Europe for two full days of sporting events that cover an impressive sweep of over 22 different disciplines.

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The ESRF, present in the competition since 1996, came back with a flourish of medals: 36 in total for 24 participants who triumphed in athletics, swimming, sailing, golf, badminton, mountain-biking and bowling.

The overall winner of the 2015 Summer Atomiade was the European Commission's Joint Research Centre ISPRA in Italy.

A great round of applause to all participants and organisers and to the consolidation of the ESRF's reputation as a dynamic, sporty, competitive and fair-playing institute.

The ASCERI Story

ASCERI’s objective is to contribute to a united Europe through regular sports meetings, bringing together members of public Research Institutes at a European level.

During the mid-sixties the sports club of the Karlsruhe Research Centre in Germany came up with the idea of holding a football tournament between German national research centres.

The event proved to be a great success and a few years later collaborators from other European research centres were invited to take part and, in 1973 under the guidance of Heinz Rhein, the then President of the Jülich sports club, nine different sports were added and the Atomiade was born.

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Credit photos: Asceri

     

Annual football, tennis and later golf tournaments were held in parallel and, in 1981, the first winter sports Atomiade was organised in Grenoble, and hosted by the ILL.

Today the range of sports has considerably increased: Archery, Athletics (Track and Field), Badminton, Basketball, Chess, Cycling (Road and Mountain Bike), Football, Golf, Handball, Inline Skating, Half-Marathon, Sailing, Shooting, Surfing, Swimming, Table Tennis, Tennis, Triathlon and Volleyball. And for the Winter Atomiade: Giant slalom (ski and snowboard), Cross-country skiing (classical and skating), Parallel slalom, Mixed slalom (special-giant), Laser Biathlon, Cross-country relay, Curling or other team events.

Around one thousand athletes participate in the Atomiade meetings. ASCERI has a membership of 40 research centres from 16 European countries reaching more than 40 000 research and sports enthusiasts, and it is still growing.

Today, representatives from these research centres meet annually to plan future events and oversee rule changes. ASCERI is managed by its President and Management Board, and together they look after the day to day running of the Association.

The next winter atomiade, in 2017, will be hosted by the ILL.

Find out more about these events.

Text by Kirstin Colvin

Top image: 36 medals for the ESRF Summer harvest. Image: pixgood.com