In promoting the exchange of table tennis skills among the colleges in Northern Taiwan area, The Office of Physical Education of TKU hosted a table tennis competition inviting 19 colleges, of which 33 teams attended. TKU’s table tennis teams showed an excellent performance by winning the second place in the women’s category and the fourth in the men’s category.

The competition was spread over two days due to the large number of participants. It began with rounds of play-offs by teams, which were divided into several groups, and then the first two winners of each group played against one another in the finals. There were 21 teams in the men's category divided into 5 groups, whereas there were 12 teams in the women’s category, which were split into 2 groups. Both TKU’s men and women’s teams entered the final winning the second place in their respective group.

In the women’s competition, our team encountered the Ming-chuan University team in an intense first round of play-offs, who eventually won the championship. We lost to them by 1:3 at the final of the first round. In the second round, our team won easily against National Taiwan University and National Taiwan Normal University teams respectively by 3:1 to advance to the finals. In the final championship game, we were facing Ming-chuan University once again; yet after a thrilling combat, we lost to them by 1:3. Despite the loss, Lee Meng-chun, the team captain, a junior in the Department of Material Chemistry, was satisfied with the result stating that they had done their best and they would strive to do better next time.

TKU’s men’s team beat National Tsing Hua University by 3:2 in the first round to advance to the quarterly finals, in which they won easily against Taipei Municipal Teachers College by 3:1. Unfortunately, in the semi-finals, they lost to National Taiwan University and National Central University both by 2:3 winning the fourth place eventually. The team’s captain, Liu Yo-tsai, a junior in the Department of Information and Library Science said that they would continue their efforts to revive the glory left by the teams before them.

Moreover, the softball teams representing TKU attending the Chung-cheng Open Cup hosted by the Taipei Softball Association have proved to be successful as well. Our team won second place in fast softball held on Oct. 26. Our teams were led by instructor Wang Yuan-sheng and delivered their best performance in recent years.

In this Open, there were 8 teams in total. The first three places went to National Taiwan University, Tamkang University and National Cheng Kung University respectively. The game against National Cheng Kung University proved to be the most thrilling experience. All the way to the 7th inning, it was tight combat. The scores stood at 5:5 then; due to a missed pass by National Cheng Kung University. TKU took the advantage to score the decisive one point gaining the edge over their opponent. However, in the final, TKU lost to Taiwan University winning the second instead.

Instructor Wang Yuan-sheng said that it was encouraging to see all the students involved showed great team spirit and a decent performance. Yet, he believed they could do better in the future. For example, in his view, the reason TKU lost to National Taiwan University was due to insufficient fighting spirit rather than inadequate techniques. This may have been caused by the knowledge that some of the team members on the other side played for the Taiwan national team. Consequently, they felt a little intimidated by their opponents even though they possessed the necessary strength and speed. Nonetheless, he is hopeful that their future is bright once the team has stabilized their control of the ball.