By Ahmed Wafi
GOMBAK, 3 July 2016: Four IIUM students will be among 12 students who will represent Malaysia in the upcoming International University Sports Federation’s (FISU) World University Championships (WUC) Rugby Sevens tournament to take place in Swansea, Wales from 6 to 9 July this year. They are Muhammad Naquiyuddin, Mohamed Nasharuddin and brothers Muhammad Mirza and Muhammad Zakwan.
The remaining eight others consist of students from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and Universiti Malaya (UM).
FISU is a French based university sports organisation that is responsible for organising the world famous University games or more commonly known as the Universiade, a biannual sports competition, participated exclusively by university students.
A total of ten teams including France, Great Britain and Australia are to compete in the tournament. They will be divided into two groups where they will initially play a round robin format. After that, the top eight best placed teams will advance to the knockout stage.
Malaysia has been placed in the second group where they will face the likes of  France, Argentina, Kenya and Spain.
In an exclusive interview with IIUMToday, Muhammad Naquiyuddin, one of the four IIUM students travelling to Swansea on Monday morning, shared his thoughts regarding the tournament.
He said, “First of all, I’m grateful to be here and gain my first cap for the national team and this is a good chance to gain experience.”
“This will be the first time I’ll be celebrating Hari Raya overseas,” he said while looking forward to the challenge. The national team acknowledged their size disadvantage when going up against the European sides but they still believe they can pull off a few surprises and look to advance to the knockout stage.
When asked if he had anything to say to aspiring athletes he simply reminded that hard work beats talent.***