1st World University Woodball Championship
Taipei City-Hwalian County - September 4th tot 7th, 2004
Host Country Dominates
At the end of the first day of competition, during which, the participants had to play two rounds; it was already becoming clear that the Chinese Taipei athletes were the most competent.
Woodball has many assets that ensure its popularity: it is easy to learn but difficult to master, it can be played both for competition and for recreation. It can be practised on any grassy area and finally the necessary equipment is very cheap. It is undoubtedly for this reason that it is so prevalent in the countries of South Asia where it emerged. The player uses a wooden mallet to hit a wooden ball weighing 400 grams with a diameter of 9.5 cm. The ball should finish its course by passing through a ‘door’ made of two wooden ‘bottles’ arranged 16cm from each other. The aim is to use the fewest possible hits to reach the door: each round having its ‘par’ (as in golf) which is the ideal number of hits. The round is composed of three different parts: the Tee-off, the Fairway and finally the Green where the door is placed. Taipei City, the host of this First World University Woodball Championship, is one of the birthplaces of this discipline which, since the 1990s has seen a dramatic growth in university circles. With a population of 3 000 000 inhabitants, the city of Taipei is the political, cultural and economic capital of the island of Chinese Taipei. Combining ancient and modern culture, the city regularly organises Woodball competitions and was therefore an ideal site for this ‘first’.
Eleven countries from four continents travelled to the championship. Mr George E. Killian, FISU President, opened the championship in person at a successful Opening Ceremony held in the great hall of the championship hotel. Distinguished personalities from national sport found time in their schedule to take part in the ceremony. They included Mr Chin-Lung Lu, General Ambassador and Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Michael Huang, Vice-President of the National Council for Physical Education and Sports and of course Mr Tien-Rein Lee, President of the National University Sports Association of Chinese Taipei.
Torrential Rain
As an approaching typhoon threatened to disturb the competition, the organisers decided to reduce the duration of the tournament to two days (instead of three). The symbolic opening was carried out, unfortunately in heavy rain, by Mr Killian and Mr Lee who played some of the course before the competition began. At the end of the first day of competition during which the participants had to play the course (twelve doors) twice, it was already becoming clear that the Chinese Taipei athletes were the most competent. Among the women, for example, the first six places were cornered by the local players, while for the men, six out of the first eight came from the host country. For the women, the local team dominated completely and in the final classification, after three rounds, the six players of Chinese Taipei occupied the first places. Hui-Chun Wu took the gold medal owing to her magnificent first round which allowed her to head the classification from beginning to end. Her two compatriots, Hsin-Yi Huang and Hui-ling Tseng displayed consistent performances. They finished in second and third place respectively.
Organizing Committee
CTUSF 12th Floor, N° 20, Chulun St. TAIPEI 104 , TAIWAN R.O.C phone: (886.2)27710300 fax: (886.2)27710305
FISU President, George Killian
Paradoxically, it was an American player who led the men’s classification after the first two rounds. Eugene Jiang, thanks to his consistent playing was only two points ahead of Shin-Fong Huan (TPE). The last round was to prove fatal for him as it would see him fall back to third place. Shin-Fong Huan, and especially Meng-Hung Tsai, two players from Chinese Taipei, played a perfect course pocketing the silver and gold medals respectively. In the double classification, the first two places fell to Chinese Taipei with Chan Yu-Shen / Wu Hui-Chun (1) and Tsai Peng-Chih/Huang Hsin-yi (2). The bronze medal went to the Korean pair Cheol-Hee Won / Ji-Hee Song. Needless to say, Chinese Taipei took the team classification for men and women. In both cases, Korea and Hong Kong finished in second and third place. We’ll meet again in 2006 for the second World University Woodball Championship to be held in Bangkok (THA).
