STAWAG's Top Sports Award goes to Intellectual Athletes
As part of the University Sports Show, the Top Sports Award powered by STAWAG is presented each year to the top university athletes from Aachen. This year, the prize went to Philipp Pabst and Sven Farwig. The both of them took third place in the discipline Bridge at the World University Championship (WUC).
When people think of top-level sports, they probably don't think of bridge at first. But as early as 1998, the International Olympic Committee officially recognized the challenging card game as a sport. Since 2002, bridge tournaments have been organized by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). Today, together with chess, bridge is part of the FISU discipline of mental sports.
Philipp Pabst and Sven Farwig participated as part of the German national team at the WUC Denksport 2022 in Antwerp and came in 3rd place. Already in 2020, the duo participated in a WUC and reached the 15th place with the German team. A significant challenge at such international tournaments is to maintain concentration on the game for hours on end.
For the two winners, their fascination for bridge began at an early age: Philipp Pabst already had his first experiences in the bridge club in elementary school. Sven Farwig spent his vacations as a child together with his family at the Bridge Camp. They like the depth of the game on the one hand, but also its highly communicative component. Since bridge is played in teams of two, it is more interactive than chess.
With third place in a worldwide championship, the two winners achieved the best result of Aachen University athletes in the competition years 2020, 2021 and 2022, for which they have now been honored by STAWAG with the Top Sports Award of Aachen University Sports. Eva Wußing, STAWAG's press officer, presented the award at a ceremony during the University Sports Show.