In the News

Size matters for Taipei girls high school tuggers

• Publication Date：02/05/2010
• Source： China Times

A commitment to beefing up brought home the bacon for Taipei Jingmei Girls High School’s tug of war team, which out-pulled rivals from across Taiwan in qualifying for the 2010 World Indoor Championships in Italy.

“Weight is everything in tug of war,” said coach Guo Shen Feb. 4. “I have great respect for these girls as they willingly exchanged physical beauty for the honor of representing their school and Taiwan on the international sporting stage.”

Team leader Guo Yia-ting, who stands 157 centimeters tall, claimed to weigh 48 kilograms when she began training for Taiwan’s championships. “I put on 12 kilograms in a few weeks,” Guo said, adding that 12 team members gained a combined 60 kilograms in three months.

Guo said one of the girls topped the scales at 93 kilograms just before being named to the school’s nine-strong team for the national competition.

Schoolmistress Lin Li-hua said the girls decided to put on weight after the Tug of War International Federation, organizer of the world championship, dropped its age requirement for female junior to 16.

“The students were originally looking to qualify for the 480 kilogram weight class, but this was not feasible given the new age restriction,” she said. “We decided to move up to 540 kilograms and above.”

Lin said although the government subsidizes tug of war teams in the 540 kilogram and above weight class, funding was not sufficient to cover the NT$500,000 (US$15,600) cost of getting the girls to Cesenatico, Italy.

“We covered the shortfall by raising funds from teachers and parents,” Lin said. “Everyone dug deep and the team got the money it needed.” (PCT-JSM)