November 9 marked a historic day as the 15th National Games of the People's Republic of China officially kicked off with a spectacular opening ceremony in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province. Thirteen days later, today (November 21) sees the curtain fall on this landmark sports gala, with the much-anticipated closing ceremony set to take place.
▲
The opening ceremony of the 15th National Games highlighted unity, culture and innovation.
Launched in 1959 to promote mass sports participation, China's National Games have opened a new chapter with the groundbreaking 2025 edition, being jointly held for the first time in Guangdong province and the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.
This was the largest occurrence of the games, in numbers of participants and host cities. The Greater Bay Area games featured 419 medal events across 34 sports, involving over 14,000 professional athletes on its competitive program. Among the standout performers, ECNUers clinched two gold medals. Congratulations to them! Let’s look back at their remarkable achievements.
On November 10th, the day after the Games' opening ceremony, exciting news came from the Guangdong International Rowing Center: in the final of the Women's Lightweight Single Sculls, 19-year-old Zhang Fangfang, an undergraduate majoring in Sports Training at ECNU, won the gold medal with an excellent time of 5 minutes 26.48 seconds.
After the competition, Zhang Fangfang shared her thoughts in an interview: "I didn’t expect to win the championship—all competitors were highly skilled, and the gap between us was extremely narrow. That’s why I’m absolutely satisfied with my performance today. Next, I’ll strive to stand on even higher podiums!"
On the evening of November 15, the final of the 4x100m Mixed Relay in Athletics at the 15th National Games took place at the Guangdong Olympic Sports Center. The Fujian team, featuring ECNU athletes Ge Manqi and Lin Yuwei, claimed the gold medal with a time of 40.37 seconds.
Ge Manqi noted after the race: "This mixed relay event is brand-new, and our team lineup is also newly formed, so we don’t have much experience. Our victory relied on the absolute trust between teammates and the experience we’ve gained through rigorous training and consistent teamwork."
Lin Yuwei, a master’s student in Physical Education, expressed a rousing aspiration: "I hope this gold medal can inspire our juniors to bring more honors to the university in their future sports careers!"
