The 2002 Intercollegiate Athletic Games will be held from March 29 (Friday) to April 2 at the I Shou University, Kaohsiung. A ritual in which Pres. Chang Horng-jihn will hand the flag over to the sports teams representing TKU is to be held at the Activity Center on March 26 at 11:30 AM. It bespeaks Pres. Chang Horng-jihn’s sincere hope that the team may bring back as many gold medals as they can.

The TKU sports teams will participate in 8 of the 10 listed competitions. Aside from the track/field contest, tennis, table tennis, golf and swimming, badminton, Chinese martial arts and billiard game have also been included in the 5-day tournaments. Unfortunately, the three events of the “Iron Man” competition has been cancelled due to lack of an ideal site; otherwise, TKU may stand a better chance of “cutting out a figure” since she did win the three events—bicycle race, swimming and marathon last year.

A total of 142 team members together with their coaches and working crew will participate in this sports finale, hoping they will work out a better achievement this year; last year, they landed at 7.

Of course everybody is working hard and nobody dares to take it easy. For instance, Chen Chao-hsin (Junior, English) who broke the record of 100-meter race in the track event with 12 point 64 seconds last year, would not call it quits this year. She said: “I will seize a medal, that is for sure; the only difference is whether the medal is shiny enough or not.” She is ambitious, if not bragging, to say that. She is aiming at 2 gold medals, one for the 100-meter, and another for the 200-meter.

As for Lin Po-yuan, who won a gold medal for the golf tournament last year, also has high expectation this year. He has misgivings, though, because he thinks that the turfs alongside the Chen Ching Lake of Kaohsiung are not the ideal ground to play. But in facing this physical handicap, he will do his best to surmount it and win not just the individual, but also the group title for the golf event.

As for the tennis, as well as table tennis, badminton and swimming, TKU stands the best chance to win, and their chances in the Chinese martial arts, billiards are just as great because there are numerous hopefuls in their teams. “That’s why everybody is burning his/her night-oil; nobody dares to take a slightest bit of a chance. Everybody is working hard.” As Mr. Wang Yi-shyung, Director of the Office of Physical Education, reassuringly told us.