Not enough treadmills in the gym room? Wanna play badminton and basketball but the courts are always full? These problems will likely go away very soon. In this issue, Dr. Patrick Chan Ping Cheung, director of the Office of Sports Affairs, discloses what is in store for sports lovers on the new campus.

The Sports Complex

Topping the list is of course the Sports Complex. Located on the Wholesome Avenue, the four-storey Sports Complex is full of surprises (refer to the appended table for details). “We all know that the new campus is 20 times larger than the current campus, but it’s a more than 20-fold increase in terms of sports facilities,” says Dr. Chan. There are three types of sports facilities on the new campus: indoor facilities, outdoor facilities, and water facilities. Indoor facilities include gym rooms, training court, table tennis room, badminton court, squash court, dancing rooms, classrooms, multi-purpose rooms, and a fitness lab for Faculty of Education teachers and students to do research. In the future, the international-standard main stadium will have the capacity to accommodate basketball, volleyball, handball, and five-a-side football events, as well as university basketball events at the national level. There is even a heated indoor swimming pool (50m x 10 lanes) for UM members to use.

“What’s available on the current campus will be available on the new campus, only there will be a lot more,” says Dr. Chan. “For example, we are planning to build a bouldering wall opposite the rock climbing wall. We will even have a bowling green and an artificial beach for beach sports, which are rarities in Macao. Perhaps UM is by far the only university in the world where you can play beach volleyball, beach football, beach handball and beach korfball on the campus.”

For those who love to play badminton and basketball, the now most popular sports at UM, there will be no shortage of courts on the new campus (12 badminton courts and 14 basketball courts).

There’s Always One Near You

Apart from the indoor facilities, there is an outdoor football stadium with a seating capacity of 3,000. There are also outdoor basketball courts and tennis courts right outside the residential buildings for faculty members and postgraduates as well as the residential colleges. And the current plan is to have these outdoor facilities open to UM members for free on a first-come-first-served basis. Also, the university is planning to extend the duration of the compulsory PE course, which is part of the current general education curriculum, from one semester to two semesters, with the addition of swimming and running which can help improve cardiopulmonary function, in order to make exercising a part of the students’ everyday life. Construction of the sports facilities is underway and some have been finished. Dr. Chan hopes that the Sports Complex can become fully operational this June. At this stage it will only be open to UM members. So stay tuned!

 

Sports Complex Facilities on Each Level

G/F

Swimming pool, main stadium, training court, clinic

2/F

 

Offices (including office of the UMSU Sports Association), multi-purpose room(s)

3/F

Gym room(s), dance room(s), table tennis room, classrooms, fitness lab, multi-purpose room(s)

4/F

Squash court, badminton court, dance room(s), activity room(s)