On the glistening water, the athletes showcased the dragon boat spirit, working together and fighting tenaciously, presenting a series of spectacular dragon boat races for everyone to enjoy. After intense competition, JUST won first place in the Group A Division A overall team score, NJUST won first place in the Group A Division B overall team score, and Jiangsu Shipping College secured the leading position of the Group B overall team score. NJUST and JUST were awarded first prizes in the international students’ category. Many teams were awarded the Sportsmanship Award for Teams. Fifty students including Wang Shuo, Xu Mengjie and so on were awarded Sportsmanship Award for Athletes. Additionally, four coaches were recognized as Outstanding Coaches with eight referees honored as Outstanding Referees.
During the competition, our university also held an academic seminar on the inheritance and development of traditional national sports. Liang Peigen, Deputy Director of College Working Committee of the Jiangsu Student Sports Association, Yan Hua, an expert from SEU, and Liu Dahai, an expert from JOU, taking dragon boat sport as an example, delivered wonderful academic reports on the culture and etiquette of dragon boat, dragon boat sport competition and appreciation, and the feasibility study and prospects of China’s dragon boat sport entering the Olympics.
JUST attached great importance to the hosting of this competition. University leaders visited multiple times to provide guidance and extend their regards to the JUST dragon boat team, who underwent rigorous training during the summer. According to Coach Hao Xiaogang, the dragon boat team trained three times a day: 5:30-8:00 water training, 10:00-12:00 special physical quality training and 16:00-19:00 water training. As the specific organizing department, the School of Physical Education spent several months preparing for the event. From planning and material preparation to organizing and executing the competition, they conducted repeated rehearsals of important processes to ensure the success of the competition. During this period, they got the support and coordination from the relevant functional departments of the university, providing good conditions and high-quality services for the teams. They received high praise from the organizing committee, participating teams and the other universities.
JUST attaches great importance to physical education. In recent years, our university continues to adhere to the public sports teaching characteristics of “one exercise, one martial art, one swimming”, striving to establish a comprehensive physical education curriculum that covers both undergraduate and graduate students. At the same time, leveraging its unique advantages of ship and the excellent natural conditions of campus, our university has developed “ship-related, water-related” sports programs, incorporating swimming, dragon boating, kayaking, stand up paddle, and diving into its distinctive physical education curriculum. This initiative encourages students to actively participate in sports activities, guiding them to enjoy the fun of sports and competitions, strengthening their physical fitness, developing a sound personality, and building their willpower. We have actively created brand events such as Dragon Boat Teachers-Students League and Campus Marathon. In 2023, our university was ranked fifth in the assessment of high-quality development indicators (sports) among high-level undergraduate universities in the province. In the future, our sports teams will continue to train hard, striving to achieve even better results in major competitions and contributing to the construction of high-level university through sports excellence.