NTU Swimming Team Reigned Supreme in the National Collegiate
Sports Meet - Winning 40 Golds, 27 Silvers and 19 Bronzes in Medals

The 2009 National Collegiate Sports Meet took place from May 2nd to May 6th for five consecutive days of athletic competition. Hosted by National Taiwan Normal University, this year's National Collegiate Sports Meet had twelve different kinds of sporting events. NTU participated in eleven of them, which were: track and field, swimming, tennis, badminton, table tennis, judo, taekwondo, fencing, archery, gymnastics, and karate. Overall, NTU's performance in these events was quite amazing, winning a total of 86 medals (40 golds, 27 silvers, and 19 bronzes ). Of the 162 schools which participated in the games, NTU ranked No.2, second only to the National Normal University. As many schools had a hard time winning a gold medal, NTU's illustrious performance surpassed and stunned many institutions with athletic departments.

In terms of group titles, NTU won championships in the following categories: the open boys swimming and the general girls swimming, the general boys tennis, the general girls archery, and the general boys fencing (blunt swords). Group titles represent the individual school's performance in promoting a particular sport, and winning a group title means far more than winning a gold medal. What is specially worth mentioning is that swimming was designated as a priority sport for promotion by NTU only this year. Nevertheless, NTU swimming team won 24 golds, 20 silvers, and 7 bronzes in this medal-rich sport, breaking a university record!!

In addition, the general division and the open division together set 10 new records for the National Collegiate Sports Meet, making the NTU team the most observed star team. Among the team members, three graduate students stood out prominently. Mr. Zuo-Yi Chen in the Boys Open Division, Miss Chih-Jye Kao and Miss Ting-Wei Chiu in the Girls General Division were able to take care of their academic load and physical training at the same time. Their illustrious performance in the National Collegiate Sports Meet set a shining example for their fellow schoolmates.

Track and field, another priority sport at NTU, won 4 golds, 3 silvers, and 3 bronzes this year in the National Collegiate games. In the group titles, the general boys division and the general girls division were the 2nd runner up in track and field. Tennis, a favorite sport at NTU, has a glorious reputation in the national games, this year NTU won the championship again in the general boys group, making it four years in a row that NTU has won the championship. The general girls division in group competition were surrounded by formidable foes, yet our girls achieved a breakthrough and won the 3rd place. Their amazing performance is certainly worthy of our applause. The group competition were often attended by 60 to 70 teams, so it was very difficult for NTU to come to the fore, especially in table tennis and badminton. In the past NTU also did well in these two sports. Although we did not win the championship this year in table tennis and badminton, but the general boys division in badminton and the general girls group competition in table tennis also won the 2nd runner up, so our athletes' efforts deserve to be encouraged.

Another high profile event of NTU—archery, maintains its past tradition and pulled an amazing performance this year in the field. In 2007 NTU won the archery group title in Girls General Division, but in the 2008 semi-finals, NTU lost by just one point to Chang-Kung University. This year NTU staged a comeback. In the girls group competition, Miss Tsai-Wei Wen, Miss Yu-hang Tang and Miss Derh Hsin Wu shot a combined score of 315, breaking the games' record and winning a gold medal for NTU. On top of our athletes' amazing performances, NTU was honored to have the first leg in the torch relay. On May 1st, in front of the NTU main gate, President Si-chen Lee led all the athletes to welcome the torch team of the national games. The relay ceremony was solemn and grand. President Lee first received the main flame from the torch team , then passed the main flame to NTU relay team members, which was comprised of six NTU athletes, to wit: captain of the track and field team Mr. Chirh-Yu Lin, Miss Ting-wei Chiu from the Swimming Team, Miss Hung-hsuan Lin from the table tennis team, Miss Po-chun Chou from the badminton team, Miss You-Lin Dai from the tennis team, Miss Shu-Fen Chen from the judo team and Mr. Shih-Jye Wang from the taekwondo team. The moment President Si-chen Lee held the main flame of the games symbolized the passing on of the heritage of sportsmanship and the continuation of the theme of this year's games which was defined as " excellent competition and revitalizing sports."

This year's National Collegiate Sports Meet ended on a perfect note. NTU shall strive toward creating a better record in next year's games, as scaling new heights has always been our goal. Go, NTU!!