21/3/2018
Despite trying weather condition, over 150 people turned up for the 6th Si Yuan Cup Table Tennis Tournament on Saturday 17th March , which took place at the University of Nottingham’s David Ross Sports Village. Over 80 contestants from ten to over 70 years old took part, with more than 30 young people registering for free table tennis taster session. The event was jointly organised by Nottingham Confucius Institute, Rally Bridge and Si Yuan Pingpong Club, with support from many of our long term partners including Nottingham City Council, Ping Nottingham, Table Tennis England, Carlton Le Willows Academy, Sycamore Table Tennis Academy and CSSA Nottingham. Our special guests included Jason Feehily, NCI’s UK director, Dr Bin Wu, Chair and founder of Si Yuan Pongpong Club, Mike Payne, Vice President of Table Tennis England and his wife Lilian Payne, an international referee. We were very honoured to have Mr and Mrs Payne work as referees during our final games.
The tournament ran for five hours from mid afternoon to late evening, with contestants competing in either the Open Championship (for advanced players) or the Social Tournament (for less advanced players). The Open Championship was also divided into men’s and women’s singles categories with group and elimination stages.
In the Men's Open Championship, Minglun Dai of HelongJiang Province Table Tennis Team experienced a sudden and surprise elimination at quarter-finals. All semi-finals ended up being dominated by players from the University of Nottingham’s Sports Team. The final winner was Marcus Gile, with Gabrial Achampong and Joe Pillington reaching second and third place respectively.
In the Women’s Open Championship, Dr Wufei Zhang, a Nottingham University alumna, once again won the championship, beating Eszter Soos from the University of Nottingham Sports Team at the finals. Yudan Deng, an international student currently studying at the University of Nottingham, came third. To everyone’s surprise, the Social Tournament championship was won by two 14 years old students from Carlton Le Willows Academy, Max Pateman and Josh Smith. 16 year-old Yiqi Hou and Shaoqun Zhu came second and two academics from the University, Dr Bin Wu and Xianghui Hou, won the third prize.
The Si Yuan Cup Table Tennis Tournament began in 2013 and has now become a key event on the calendar for local sports fans. This year’s tournament was an unprecedented success in terms of scale and number of contestants. The variety of participation was very encouraging. According to the registration records, 46.5% of the contestants were university and secondary school students, 13.5% academic staff or teachers from universities and schools, and 40% from the wider community.
Feedback from event participants was extremely positive, with many of them saying they enjoyed the event very much. A mother of a ten-year-old contestant wrote to us after the event saying “my son had such a great time. He even promised to practise more and asked me to sign him up for next year’s tournament”.
“This is a flagship community engagement and widening participation event which uses table tennis as a way of encouraging participation, “said Mr Jason Feehily, NCI’s UK Director. “I was truly impressed at the numbers participating and the diversity of engagement. It was great to see schools, such as Carlton Le Willows whom we support, participating and the broad range of ages - all with the amazing backdrop of the David Ross Sports Village,” he added.
NCI would like to thank our co-organisers, partners, and over twenty staff and student volunteers who devoted so much of their valuable time. A big thank you should also go to our sponsors Hino Travel, Willowbrook Delivery Chemist and Inlair Group Nottingham, who kindly provided exciting prizes ranging from cash prizes to travel products. The event would not have been such a success without contributions from all parties.
~ENDS~
诺丁汉大学孔子学院再次成功举办第六届“思源杯”乒乓球锦标赛
文 郭转辉/图 Andrew Hallsworth
2018年3月17日，正值农历正月的最后一天，由诺丁汉孔子学院主办、汇桥文化体育（RallyBridge Sport Ltd.）和思源乒乓球俱乐部共同承办的第六届“思源杯”乒乓球锦标赛在英国诺丁汉大学David Ross Sports Village 成功举办。
一年一度的“思源杯”乒乓球锦标赛已在英国形成了传统，成为推广中国国球文化和中外体育文化交流的盛典。比赛当天大雪纷飞，却没能阻挡参赛选手前来参赛的热情。在多方途径的宣传下，本次比赛共吸引了来自英格兰中东部包括诺丁汉郡 、莱斯特郡和德比郡等地区的80余名位参赛选手。本次比赛除吸引了华人留学生、华人教职工和社区华人华侨外，同时也吸引了来自世界各国的留学生、英国社区学校学生和英国乒乓球爱好者的参与。除了比赛以外，场地内还设有体验区和教学区，近60名当地社区居民在观看激烈比赛的同时也切身体验了乒乓球运动的魅力。这充分体现了诺丁汉孔子学院的传播中华文化、汇桥体育的通过乒乓球促进中外交流和思源乒乓球俱乐部的帮助国际留学生融入英国当地社区的理念和主旨。
诺丁汉孔子学院负责人张华老师主持了开幕式，并由诺丁汉孔子学院院长及诺丁汉大学亚洲知识交流部主任詹森·费海利（Jason Feehily）和思源乒乓球俱乐部主席武斌在开幕式致开幕辞，为本次乒乓球比赛拉开了帷幕。
本次比赛分公开组和娱乐组两大组，以先小组赛、後淘汰赛的方式进行。现场比赛精彩纷呈，高潮不断。娱乐组的队员们发扬“乒乓聚友谊、运动赢快乐”的运动精神，公开组的队员们则享受在赛场上挥洒汗水的酣畅淋漓。值得一提的是，本次比赛请到英格兰乒乓球协会副主席、全英高校运动委员会乒乓球比赛主任、国际级裁判的迈克尔·佩恩（Mike Payne）和同为国际级裁判的莉莉安·佩恩(Lilian Payne)为本次比赛的决赛场次执裁。
男子公开组中，被预言为黑马的原黑龙江省队员戴明伦在四分之一决赛中不敌本次比赛的亚军提前出局。前三名由来自英国诺丁汉大学乒乓球队选手包揽，其中马库斯·吉尔斯（Marcus Giles）经过激烈角逐以3：2战胜了加布里埃尔·阿查帕（Gabriel Achampong）获得冠军，乔·皮尔金顿（Joe Pilkington）获第三名。
在女子公开组的比赛中，来自华人社区的张吴菲时隔一年再次获得冠军，并在决赛中战胜了诺丁汉大学乒乓球校队选手埃斯特（Eszter Soos）。中国留学生邓喻丹杀出重围获得女子单打第三名。
娱乐组比赛赛制新颖独特，以先“双打”后“单打”的模式展开。最终卡尔顿·勒柳斯学院（Carlton le Willows Academy）平均年龄仅为14岁的马克斯·佩特曼（Max Pateman）和乔希·史密斯（Josh Smith）获得冠军，由侯一祺和朱少群所组成的华人社区组合获得亚军，第三名由诺丁汉大学教授组合武斌和侯向辉老师获得。
颁奖典礼上，由本次赞助商之一英莱尔教育负责人、英格兰乒乓球协会副主席迈克尔·佩恩（Mike Payne）和国际级裁判的莉莉安·佩恩 (Lilian Payne) 为获奖队员颁发奖金和奖品。总价值千磅的奖金和旅游产品奖品分别由英莱尔教育、王药师大药房、汇桥体育和海诺旅游（Hino Travel）倾情赞助。最后，诺丁汉孔子学院负责人张华老师为本次活动13名志愿者颁发证书。
诺丁汉孔子学院以乒乓球为媒介，通过高水平比赛与大众娱乐赛结合的方式让大家相聚一堂，不但共同见证了第六届 “思源杯”精品赛事的再次成功举办，而且促进了中英体育文化的交流，传播了中国国球文化。
Posted on Friday 23rd March 2018