Once again President Way Kuo of City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has led a team of around 240 athletes in the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, which was held on 24 October.
President Kuo has run the Hong Kong marathon with a CityU delegation for 12 consecutive years, except in 2020 because of Covid-19, exemplifying CityU’s spirit of excellence in both academics and sports.
The 2021 marathon has been significantly scaled down as an anti-pandemic measure. In the past, over 1,000 CityU athletes would compete at each marathon, whereas this year only around 240 could sign up. Sixty-two CityU runners ran the full marathon, and 73 and 108 completed the half marathon and 10-kilometre run, respectively, including Professor Kuo in the latter.
Dozens of staff, alumni, and students in the support team greatly boosted the team’s spirits throughout the races with their continuous cheering.
CityU advocates “excellence in both academics and sports” and encourages students to immerse themselves in academic knowledge and in the modern-day equivalent of the Confucian idea of the “Six Arts”, according to President Kuo. While emphasising a strong academic performance, the University also equips students with athletic and musical skills, which helps to explain why CityU leads in international academic rankings.
The 7th CityU Arts Festival, which was unveiled earlier, showcases the musical talents of our students while over the past 15 years CityU has won seven out of 11 Grand Slams/overall championships in local sports leagues against 13 local tertiary institutions.
Moreover, alumna Ms Grace Lau Mo-sheung won a historic Bronze medal for Hong Kong in the Karate Women’s Kata at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Notably, CityU was the first university in Hong Kong to introduce and practice the concept of One Health, and the campus community will enjoy outstanding access to a well-equipped indoor sports complex and an all-weather indoor running track connected to the hillside trail after the Jockey Club One Health Tower opens.
