On Saturday 25th May, a group of brave sportsmen, sportswomen and spectators from Yenching Academy of Peking University headed to Tsinghua University to take on Schwarzman College in the first Annual Sports Day. This is one of the biggest events in the calendar year for Yenching Scholars to wear the academy's colours with pride and participate in the friendly rivalry.
The day began with the mixed basketball game. Emily Vincent, Hannah Kirk, Billy Sandlund, Jordan Schneider and Guillaume Prévot all stepped up to the court. With no substitute players and 35 degree heat, this looked like it would be a tough match. However, all throughout the game, Yenching dominated the play scoring basket after basket. Highlights include some stellar 3 pointers from Billy, incredible rebounds from Jordan, unmatchable pace of Guillaume, textbook layups from Emily and basket bound cuts for Hannah. After 4 quarters of beautiful play, the Yenching team finished on 30 points crushing Schwarzman who were left with only 16. The supporters really drove the win home, shouting from the side line where they enjoyed the snacks and the sunshine.
Next up Yenching scholars took on Schwarzman scholars on the soccer field. The mixed team consisted of Fede Verly, Ilari Mäkelä, Guillaume Prévot, Hana Lord, Alicia Rodríguez Alabarce, José Pablo Ceballos Cantú, Emily Vincent, Hannah Kirk, Abdou Rahim Lema Mohamed, Angélica Patiño, Jacob Gladysz, Jordan Schneider and Pim ten Haaf. The game was evenly-matched in the first half, with some great passes from Fede, saves from Ilari, steals from Hana and runs by Angélica. The Schwarzman team stole a few good goals into the second half leaving the final score as 2-0. Congratulations to the whole team for putting in such a good fight and for running the Schwarzman players down even on tired legs until the very final whistle blew. Once again, they couldn't have done it without the sideline supporters who cheered us on whilst sharing snacks with their Schwarzman counterparts.
After a successful day of sports and friendly competition, all the scholars from both schools headed to the Schwarzman bar to relax together after the long day of exertion! They deserved it!
The success of this annual sports day requires thanks to all the players, the supporters, Yenching Academy for providing refreshments and to Schwarzman College for hosting the competition. We are already looking forward to next year to defend Yenching once again!
written by Hannah Rose Kirk
photos by Michael Lee, Sophie Lei
