November 23: Shanghai has officially announced the establishment of the municipal athletics campus league at a launch ceremony held at East China Normal University.

The launch ceremony was attended by the Shanghai Deputy Mayor, Weng Tiehui and more than 300 representatives from different schools.

The newly-established Shanghai Schools Athletics League, currently consisting of 55 universities and 172 elementary schools, will become an important part of the city’s proposed “Universities, High Schools, Middle Schools and Primary Schools” Four-Level Sports Competition Model.

The league, with the goal of promoting the development of athletics on campus, is expected to combine local resources to set up a useful training system. The city has also established similar leagues in football, basketball and volleyball, including the SSFL, the SSBL and the SSVL. 

For Shanghai to turn itself into a world-leading sports city by 2025, the city is looking to make full use of various local resources. Earlier this month, the city released a sports industry plan (2017-2020), aiming to set up 22 municipal sports industry clusters, more than 40 district sports industry clusters and 4 national sports industry pilot bases by the year 2020.

Source: Xinhua

Proofread by William Logsdon