Yi-fang Wu, part-time lecturer of Office of Physical Education, represented Taiwan to participate in International Lifesaving Society’s (ILS) 2007 Asian-Pacific Contest of Lifesaving in Singapore this August and won gold in individual’s category “rope-throwing” and championship in female group’s category “100m x 4 relay of carrying the false person.” This is the first time that Taiwanese team wins gold in that contest during the past 36 years. Wu will continue to represent Taiwan in 2008 World Contest of Lifesaving and in 2009 World Games.

Countries participating in this contest include Iran, Australia, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, India, and Sri Lanka. Taiwanese team wins 6 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze medals, a wonderful achievement with the highest number of gold. Wu expressed her satisfaction with the result after all the tough training before the contest, especially swimming for 10,000 meters everyday.

Graduating from the Graduate Institute of Physical Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Wu started her teaching at TKU two years ago. She teaches lifesaving in water activities and other swimming courses and assists in training the swimming team. Owing to her work, TKU’s swimming team has been performing excellently in College Cup of Swimming Contest. As Chung-ming Chiu, lifesaver of Natatorium Complex, pointed out, “Yi-fang Wu devotes to teaching and instructing students with patience. She contributes a lot to making lifesaving courses work effectively. Students all appreciate her work very much.” In the 2006 academic year, 20 students under Wu’s guidance passed strict training to be certificated lifesavers. As Fong-sheng Lin, senior of Department of Mechanical and Electro-mechanical Engineering who succeeded in acquiring his certificate in the first period, pointed out, “Teacher Wu pays close attention to the detail of everyone’s moves. Her instruction combines theory and experience, and inspires me a lot.” This semester the number of enrolled students is two times higher than that in the first period. Those who are unable to enroll the class are even willing to be auditors. ( ~Han-yu Huang )