Interview by Rui Pastorin
The “Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China and the 25th Anniversary of the Macao SAR: University Women’s Volleyball Invitational Tournament” kicked off yesterday morning at the University of Macau (UM) Sports Complex, bringing together four teams from Macau, Mozambique, Hong Kong and the mainland to play in the two-day, on-campus event.
Organised by the University of Macau (UM), the teams competing at the BNU-sponsored tournament are from UM, the Pedagogical University of Maputo, Hong Kong Baptist University and Lanzhou University. Yesterday’s first match was between the UM and the Pedagogical University of Maputo team.
Speaking with the Post on the sidelines of yesterday’s opening ceremony, UM Vice Rector (Global Affairs) Prof. Rui Martins said that the event aims to strengthen cooperation among the mainland, Macau and the Portuguese-speaking Countries (PSCs), which in this case is Mozambique.
He added that UM had originally planned to host the tournament during the university’s 40th anniversary in 2021, but this was not possible owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was then decided to hold it this year, which also marks “a very good occasion”.
Martins added: “I think it will be an interesting tournament because these are competitive teams”.
On the volleyball event’s significance, Martins said: “We live in a world that is in turmoil, and this is a good example in the Global South, let’s say, of friendship between people in regions that are very far away [from each other]. The history and culture of these countries allow them to bring all these teams together”.
“This is the first tournament [of its kind] here and I hope that we will have others in China, Mozambique and other Portuguese-speaking countries in the future”, Martins concluded.
The tournament’s match rules note that the preliminary round “will be applied [on a] single round-robin basis”, with the first and second teams to qualify for the final. Meanwhile, the third and fourth teams will play for third place.
The competition is played best of 3 sets of 25 points for the first two sets and 15 points for the final set, according to the tournament’s rules.
The final match is slated to take place tomorrow afternoon.
The UM team (in black) play against the team from Pedagogical University of Maputo. – Photos: Rui Pastorin
UM Vice Rector (Global Affairs) Prof. Rui Martins delivers his opening remarks during yesterday’s on-campus opening ceremony of the “Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China and the 25th Anniversary of the Macao SAR: University Women’s Volleyball Invitational Tournament”.
