By Vovo Chen
This year’s sports meet came on an unexpectedly nice day, windless and hot. It opened with a parade of all the departments at the university – well, not really all of them But the departments that do join all march in high spirits. Among them are students from the Department of Civil Engineering, who carry their trophies proudly, and the Department of Medicine, wearing their white coats. Others carry brightly colored flags. After the parade, a group of dancers decorates the field with their black and red outfits, thus completing the opening ceremony of NTU’s annual sports meet. Next come a series of track and field events which last for two days. The track events include short distance races, long distance races, and a 4000-meter relay race. Field events include high jump, broad jump, javelin throw, discus throw, and shot put. Though the first day swelters, the next day pours with rain – usual for the sports meet. Yet even the weather has not dampened students’ excitement. The most exciting event every year is the 4000-meter relay. Every one has to work and practice hard in order to come out ahead, and there is a long-standing rivalry between students from the Civil Engineering and those from Medicine. The Department of Medicine have won the trophy for the past seven years, and Civil Engineering has always been just a few seconds behind. In order to encourage their students, Civil Engineering teachers offer to pay the students NT 10,000 if they win, and this year they even raised the amount to 20,000. But there was also a scandal this year. At first the Civil Engineering team won, with a huge ten-second lead, but just before the awards ceremony a student from Medicine complained that the Civil Engineering team used an athlete who had already graduated and was present serving in the army. Indeed, the student had a fantastic record on the track team and was immediately recognized by others. As a result, the Civil Engineering team were disqualified, and once again they just barely failed to achieve their goal. But I suppose their spirit is still admirable; everyone worked together to represent their department and that’s what counts. And yet from beginning to end of the competition I looked eagerly for a familiar face from the Department of Foreign Languages. But no one showed up. The department was absent again this year, and indeed no one from the entire College of Humanities seemed to show up. It’s absurd how we don’t participate. When it comes to our drama contest or the senior play, the whole department is always united, but when it comes to sports, where are we? Is there a conflict between literature and sports, or is it because we are a department dominated by female students? We have a remarkable record for drama, speech, and other academic contests, but we should also not ignore events going on around us. I hope next year we can take part, too. #Volume 6 Issue 4 a
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The Taida Student Journal has been active since 1995 with an ever-changing roster of student journalists at NTU. Click the above link to read about the authors Archives
May 2024
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