Petra Zsankó, a student of Technical Management at Széchenyi István University, won two gold medals and one sixth place at the FISU World University Cycling Championship in Costa Rica, which ended on 2 June. The athlete triumphed in the criterium and individual time trial events.

Széchenyi István University is committed to promoting sport and a healthy lifestyle, whether through the wide range of physical education courses on offer, the sports park on the Győr campus, the university clubs or the support of sports clubs and students who participate in competitive sports. The institution provides a number of tools to help students combine a professional career in sports with their studies, including the Széchenyi István University Foundation's Scholarship for Young Athletes, which Petra Zsankó was awarded in March.

The young woman from Vasszécseny recently achieved outstanding success at the FISU World University Cycling Championships, winning gold medals in two of the three road events and finishing sixth. In Costa Rica, the competitors faced extremely high temperatures and humidity, but the Széchenyi University student managed to overcome the difficulties.

The student from Széchenyi István University doing her Master's degree in Technical Management won two out of three road races (Photo: FISU - International University Sports Union) 

"Nearly twenty nations were represented at the World Championships, three of us travelled from Hungary. However, in the road races I was the only one, so unlike the delegations from the other countries, I could not work with my teammates and had to compete alone," said the cyclist.

Petra Zsankó won her first gold medal in the criterium race, in which she collected 17 points, 10 points ahead of the Slovakian runner-up. "We had to do short laps of about two kilometres in 35 minutes, and in the measured stages we got points for our finishing result. The hardest part of the course was the 11 per cent climb over 800 metres," added the winning rider.

In the next day's time trial, the challenge was to complete a 19-kilometre stage as fast as possible. The 23-year-old Hungarian was also the best in this event, finishing more than half a minute ahead of the runner-up to claim his second gold medal of the World Championships in San Carlos.

"I was really looking forward to the 88-kilometre field race and I had good chances, but unfortunately, I fell ill on the day of the race. Halfway through the race, I was constantly attacked by Polish, Slovakian and German rivals, who overtook me and I finished in sixth place," said the young talent.

The cyclist from Austria's Rapso Knittelfeld team stressed that it takes a lot of logistics to combine studying and professional sport, but the understanding attitude of the university and the instructors helps a lot. "I'm a part-time student, I don't have an individual curriculum, I take my studies as seriously as my sport," he said. The cyclist thanked the Széchenyi István University, the Hungarian Cycling Federation, his coach and his family for their support and said he hoped to represent Hungary at the Olympics one day.

The young talent previously speed skated and has been competing in road cycling for almost four years (Photo: FISU - International University Sports Federation)