Two students from Xili School in Nanshan District won first place at the first training camp of the national teenagers’ table tennis team, which concluded on May 4. Yang Huize, a girl in fifth grade, topped the rankings for the 9- to 10-year-old group. Cui Zijun, a boy in third grade, topped the rankings for the 7- to 8-year-old group. Xili School’s table tennis team is affiliated to the schools’ sports academy for teenagers. Following a concept proposed by the school’s headmaster Zhang Guangfu, which says that “education is growth,” the team has grown vigorously into a nationally well-known physical education project. So far, the school has cultivated one nationally accredited “Master Sportsman” and eight level-one national athletes. The students’ achievements are the results of their daily training. Every time after a competition, they will resume training the next day to get ready for the next event. When Zeng Peng, the Party chief of Nanshan District, visited Yang and Cui, he called the young athletes “excellent examples of an education for both the mind and the body.” “If a young athlete has acquired a good learning habit, he or she will also achieve good results in academic study. That’s because a strong mind helps them learn better,” said Zeng. (Lin Lin) |