With minds focused on the competition, shouting ONE TEAM ONE DREAM, the Jiangsu University OEC Orienteering Team represented the ZHENJIANG TEAM, they started off for Suzhou on the 12th of April for a competition. Orienteering involves the ability to read a given map and locating where exactly we are and where we are heading towards; paying attention to the dangerous slopes and water bodies as we and make our way to the final point in the fastest time possible. The following paragraph is a gist of what we OECians experienced individually and as a team: 

This Orienteering competition was for foreigners in Jiangsu Province, and it was named “Fun Run in Jiangsu, make friends across the world” between the 12th and 14th April, 2019. The aim was to “Focus on Wonderful Jiangsu” and to strengthen China’s International Relations.

The participants went through training over the winter vacations in the month of February and after a selection process, the finalists were selected.

Teams comprising of four boys and four girls from 12 cities in Jiangsu Province participated in the competition.

The teams reached the place of stay, the Dongshan Hotel, on the 12th of April. They were then taken to evaluate the places of competition that were supposed to be held on the next day.

The morning of 13th began with a welcoming ceremony with guest speakers being the Suzhou multinationals and other honorable members there. Soon the competition began and to our surprise almost all of the 15 points were located within the bushes where ridges were steep, the mud slippery, roads seeming rugged having no set pattern. We slipped many a times, got hammered by some tree branches, twisted ankles but never gave up. 

After the lunch break we began our team competition.  We having experienced the former individual competition in the morning made it well as expected. The boys’ team managed to come 6th out of 12 teams and the girls won 1st place!

The continuous training of about three months concluded on a good note and the successful day ended with a grand awarding ceremony where Riya, Kenzo and Perceive were awarded the third prize for the individual event, and the Girls Team comprising of Riya Singh, Perceive Chimhuva, Tariro Mabhiza and Pranati Chaurasia were awarded the 1st prize for the group event. A big thank you to the teachers: Mrs Cai, Mr Wang, Mr. Arun, Mrs Sun, and Mr Huang for training the athletes and leading them to the success.

The three day trip ended with a visit to the Tea Museum, and lots of experiences and memories to cherish forever.

Our Team comprised of:

Robin Kapadia(captain)

Riya Singh

Ajay Dev Manoj Kumar

Pranati Chaurasia

Kenzo

Perceive Chimhuva

Rohan Kumar

Tariro Mabhiza

Well done to all the participants!

Writers: MANOJKUMAR AJAYDEV and PRANATI CHAURASIA