2007 National Intercollegiate Athletic Game (NIAG), the biggest annual sport event among Taiwan colleges, ended last Tuesday, and TKU won 41 awards, including 3 golden medals, 5 silver medals, and 6 copper medals. The school swimming team had the best performance, including 3 golden medals, 1 silver, and 2 copper. Other teams also gained good grades in the contests of table tennis, judo, karate, taekwondo, track and field, and tennis.

The “frog queen” Hsieh Hsin-ying (junior, Dept. of Economics) is the most shining star in the school swimming team, who won the champion of 100M and 200M breaststroke as well as the runner-up of 50M breaststroke. Although Wu Chieh-yuen (Dept. of Architecture), the former captain of TKU swimming team, is a senior, he still tried hard to practice, getting the champion of 200 meter medley relay with Hsieh Hsin-ying, Chang Jen-teng, and Wei Shih-hung.

There were five freshmen in school swimming team participating in the contest, among whom, Lin Chi-mei (freshman, Dept. of Information Management), good at the butterfly, joined the competition for the first time and got the 3rd place of 100M butterfly. Lin indicated that she met many swimmers in the contest, and by observing other people’s way of practicing she learned more for her future practices. Huang Ku-cheng, Coach of TKU swimming team, indicates that there is still a discrepancy between the expectation and the real performance since the new members of the swimming team are not enough. However, their grades are still better than that of last year, showing the effort and progress of the players. “There is the best swimming facilities in Shao-mo Memorial Natatorium Complex. Students interested in swimming are warmly welcomed to join the school swimming team,” Huang adds.

TKU table tennis team won the 2nd place in group contest. Lee Ya-huan (senior, Dept. of Economics), one of the players of TKU table tennis team, said happily, “Now I can graduate with content.” As for the individual contest, Chiang Pei-ching (junior, Dept. of Insurance) got the 7th place, the best grades among TKU players. Moreover, the taekwondo team also had nice performance. Kuo Yu-hui (B Class, senior, Dept. of Statistics) won the heavy-weight copper award, and Lee Chang-chao (freshman, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering) got the 4th place in feather-weight section. Kuo Yu-hui, who never learned taekwondo until she was a freshman, said excitedly, “In the 2nd round, my knees got hurt because the opponent and I kicked with each other. My physical strength also reached the extreme limit. But I heard the voice from everyone who was crying so hard to root for me, and I knew I couldn’t let them down. Hence, I went all out in the contest. Finally I won the 3rd place! This is the best present for graduation and Mother’s Day!”

There was good news from the judo contest in the first day of 2007 NIAG. Shih Chu-yun (senior, Dept. of Chemical and Material Engineering) became the woman runner-up in the 4th level, B section, and then You Chung-you (freshman, Dept. of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering) also took the man’s silver award in the 1st level, B section. Chang Wei-jen (junior, Dept. of Electrical Engineering), leader of TKU Judo Club, indicates, “You Chung-you absolutely had the strength winning the championship. It was really a pity that he was injured and forced to give up the game.”

In the competition of karate, Wang Ching-I (freshman, Dept. of Business Management) won the silver award in the under-53-KG-individual-contest section. Her outstanding skills aroused the attention from the coaches of other schools. During the game, people could often hear their voice, “Watch how she plays carefully!” Lin Chia-hung (First year, Graduate Institute of Slavic Studies) got the 3rd place in B section, Men’s karate individual contest. He said, “I really learned a lot during the process of communicating with other players.” As for the track and field, Chang Pei-yung (sophomore, Dept. of French) took the cooper award in B section, discus contest. Chang Ya-ju (junior, Dept. of Transportation Management) also won the 3rd place in B section, woman single tennis game. ( ~Shu-chun Yen )