Racket masters from CUHK
The Chinese University of Hong Kong's (CUHK) Team 1 were crowned champions of the first-ever Hong Kong Inter-Universities Racketlon Team Championship 2007 last Sunday.
Students from the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) clinched second place in the competition.
In racketlon, a player challenges their opponent in each of the four racket sports - table tennis, squash, badminton and tennis.
The sport can be traced back to Finland in 1986, when four people from each of the four racket federations launched the game, which was originally called 'racket games'.
It is relatively new in Asia but it is becoming increasingly popular in Europe.
Last Sunday's racketlon championship attracted more than 50 students from five tertiary institutes - CUHK, CityU, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (IVE).
Each institute entered two teams comprising six athletes, except CityU who only fielded one team in the competition. In each racket game, two boys and one girl from each team competed against other teams. The winner was determined by the number of points accumulated in all the matches.
CUHK's Team 2 claimed third place, followed by IVE's Team 2.
The team who scores the highest number of points overall wins a racketlon competition.
The number of sets won by a team do not count. In other words, the champion side have the best all-round racket players.
Organised by the CUHK's Physical Education Unit - which is also the Racketlon Federation of Hong Kong - the competition was the first team event of its kind in Asia.
Chan Chi-man, chairman of the Racketlon Federation of Hong Kong, said the championship was aimed at promoting the sport in Hong Kong.
He said Hong Kong players had taken part in the Racketlon World Championships over the past two years. Chan is currently ranked number 911 in the world on a list of 1,540 racketlon players.
