TKU Swimming Squad won a Gold, five Silver and three Bronze medals at the National Still Water Lifesaving Competition held by the National Water Life Saving Association of Taiwan on October 13. It ranked the third in the total performance among the participating 15 teams.

TKU’s women team performed particularly well in the competition. In the team category, three students, Wang Pei-wen, Tsai Zi-yang of the Department of International Trade, and Lee-Xiuan Jen of the Graduate Institute of Mathematics, won a Gold in the 3x100m Manikin Tow Relay. Two Silver medals were won in the 200m Rescue Medley Relay and 200m Obstacle Relay. Lee Xiuan-jen also won the second place in the 100m Saving a Manikin with Rescue Tube, while Tsai Zi-yang won the sixth place in the 100m Saving a Manikin with Fins. Lee thanked their coach Wu Yi-fang for their success. She said that Wu had scheduled their practice very carefully prior to the contest, and coached them with training tapes and relevant data so that they could focus better on their individual strengths and weakness to achieve effective practices.

In the men team category, the best performance was the sixth place in the 200 Obstacle Relay and two fourth places in the 100m saving a manikin with fins and 50m Manikin Tow of the individual category.

The Director, Hsieh Hsing-chu, of the Office of Physical Education, was very pleased when hearing the good news. She believed every swimmer on the team deserved all the medals they won for the hard work they had put in. Mr. Huang Ku-Chen, the head coach of the swimming squad was not surprised at the positive results as he knows the swimmers quite well. He pointed out that many of them who participated in the competition are licensed life guards. Skills and hard work enabled them successfully fended off fierce competitors, winning the third place in the overall performance, he commented.

Tsai Jeh-ming, a senior from the Department of Information Management, has been on the team for two years, praised the dedication of Coach Wu. He sees her as a competent coach who just knows how to get them into top form at the right time and place. “She is also our friend who hangs out with us privately” he pointed out. “She’s made us in tune with each other’s body and spirit,” he added, “which is crucial for a successful team.” ( ~Ying-hsueh Hu )