Student
Derek Pan

Sidelights of the first Wageningen Olympics

I spent a happy hour at the Wageningen Olympics last Friday, and I have some sidelights of the game share with you.

Team-forming

One week before, I asked around my acquainted Chinese students and urged them to join this seemingly interesting event; it was also a test to see how many Chinese in this village were as active as me. I suggested them to subscribe as an individual and let the fate do the rest. In the end, only six male names were on the list of China-2, including one absentee due to the food poisoning.

Foreign aid

We lacked five people to make a valid team. Right after the warming-up, one organizer came and asked: ‘Would you like to merge with some Czech? They also need people to make a team.’ ‘Why not?’ Unanimously we said, and thus five bespectacled scholarly Chinese obtained a strong foreign aid, like a windfall, from five glasses-less sporty Czech (four men and one lady). It turned out to be a divine alliance: we outperformed most of our rivals and ranked only second to the Vatican City, whose team we didn’t encounter. We joked that it might be a court to the pope.

Where was China-1?

They quit at the last minute. Why? They just wanted to play basketball and skipped the other items, which was not allowed by the organizing committee. Shame…they just missed a big fun. They’d better read through the rules before subscribing next time.

Czech beer

Our Czech teammates made a great contribution to our victories. What kept them so competitive? I guess the secret of success was their beer. I hardly saw them sip a drop of water, instead they kept swallowing beer when feeling thirsty. Is ‘Staropramen’ also assigned as the exclusive sports drink for their sports delegation in the coming London Olympics?

Seckill on the sumo court

Seckill is a buzz word among Chinese netizens, which literally means defeating your enemy in seconds. It happened in a best-of-five sumo wrestling match between Finland and China-2. After a 2-2 draw, the last set between me and a Finn would decide the winner. So…who seckilled who? Yes…your guess was right…unfortunately I was the one got seckilled. Otherwise we could have chanted ‘We Are The Champions’ on the podium.

If you missed this sports gala, don’t forget to join next year.

Vid of the Week: A funny demonstration game between the parents of our Czech teammate Jan

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