News

2007.1130

The Spirit of Cooperation Is Elaborated on Sports Day

By Sabrina Lin Campus Reporter The spirit of hand in hand replaced competition and became the theme for National Taiwan Normal University's (NTNU) sports day this year, as most of the games were designed for team work between staff members and students. "We used to have 800m jogging but we decided to make a twist this year – to have the 1,200m relay race for teachers and staff members," said Wen Liang-tsai (溫良財), coordinator for the sports day events. Wen said that the one of the main purposes for the sports day was to encourage more NTNU members, including staff members and students, to step outdoors and get themselves sweat. In the meantime, Wen mentioned that easy games were also included in the activity list since some games of the original plan require more professional athletic skills and that will be against the idea to invite more people to join the fun of sports. In addition to real athletic games, Wen said that some fun and easy ones, such as kicking balls with wood sticks, jogging and carrying a ball at the same time and distributing water by running, were also arranged for participants, ranging from teenagers to the elders. Beyond the idea to work hand in hand, Wen said, creativity was also part of the theme for this year's event, as freshmen have shown theirs during the cheerleaders' competition on Thursday night. Staff members from the Extension Division for Inservice and Continuing Education dressed themselves as axe gang members in the movie Kung Fu (功夫) and Shaolin Temple monks when they participated in the relay race, although the first prize of the race went to staff of College of Sport and Recreation. "We would like to show our vitality and creativity," said Dr. Jones Huang (黃鴻程), chief executive officer for the division. Following Thursday night's cheerleaders' competition, the final eight – Department of Human Development and Family Education, Department of Music, Department of Arts, Department of Graphic Arts Communication, Department of Mathematics, Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, Department of Adult and Continuing Education and Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling – were decided while the first four teams performed during this morning's opening ceremony of the event and the last four teams will present their shows during Saturday afternoon's closing time for the sports day.  The champions will be decided upon their performances and will be awarded at the end of the day.