The recent Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon witnessed a strong and united team from CUHK, comprising tenacious runners as well as enthusiastic cheerers and helpers.

A total of over 3,100 runners joined the CUHK Marathon Team this year, making CUHK the second largest group in the Marathon. Prof. Joseph Sung, CUHK Vice-Chancellor also joined the 10km session of the race, in the hope of encouraging more students to accept the challenge. “If I can do it at my age, so can you” he said, after completing the race. Another CUHK runner was Daniel Lee, Lecturer from the Department of Sports Science and Physical Education. As a former member of the Hong Kong Triathlon National Squad, Daniel captured the first runner-up place in the Master 1 category of the Half Marathon challenge.

Backing up our runners were an energetic cheering team of over 450 students, alumni and staff, and a Sports Medicine Team, who had their hands full helping runners to relax sore muscles after the race.

Let’s embrace the exuberant atmosphere of the Marathon and the overwhelming sense of CUHK solidarity through the video. Photos taken at the Marathon have also been uploaded to CUHK Marathon website.

On 11 February, student athletes from 14 primary and secondary schools joined a ceremony on campus on behalf of their peers, and received special gifts from the University, such as running vests, sports suits, running shoes, basketball shoes, soccer boots, rackets and swimming goggles. For these student athletes, the gifts are indeed great encouragement.

All the sports gear came from the effort of the teachers from the Department of Sports Science and Physical Education, and the Physical Education Unit. In the hope of giving more support to student athletes in Hong Kong, they reached out to different sports associations and companies for donations and successfully gathered more than 740 pieces of sports gear. Through nomination by PE teachers, all the items were donated to student athletes in need.

Project Leader Prof. Raymond Sum of the Department of Sports Science and Physical Education hopes that the initiative can support and encourage the students to pursue their dreams and also pass on the spirit of sport to future generations.

The picturesque campus of CUHK is always a hot destination for local photographers. Recently, Steven Wu, an alumnus of Chung Chi College, presented a surreal view of campus with infrared photography. Through his lens, the lush foliage beside the Lake Ad Excellentiam seems to be coated with snow, making the campus look like a winter wonderland. In another photograph, trees turn pink, like a sea of cherry blossom.

Photography has become Steven’s hobby since he began university life. In 2016, he and another photographer set up a group on infrared photography to gather together interested people. However, the beautiful pictures were not simply achieved with a click-of-the-button. On top of a variety of equipment, such as an IR filter, image editing is also needed to achieve the best result. In this issue, we have invited Steven to introduce some useful tips about infrared photography, through a video.