A total of 53 delegates from 27 countries and regions met virtually for the 11th Asian University Sports Federation (AUSF) General Assembly in the first ever online General Assembly in AUSF history. This historic meeting also included the presence of FISU Acting President Leonz Eder, FISU Secretary General/CEO Eric Saintrond, Presidents of other Continental University Sports Federations, the Secretary General of ASEAN University Sports Council, Presidents of the Asian Chess Federation and Wushu Federation of Asia, and AUSF Honorary President ZHANG Xinsheng, who all came to convey their best regards and support to the AUSF family.
The meeting consisted of the reports from the AUSF President, Secretary General, Treasurer & internal Auditors, Sub-committees as tabled in the agenda. President XUE appreciated the efforts made by the whole AUSF family to sustain the Asian University Sport Movement, including the professionalism and resilience of the Executive Committee members demonstrated in response to the pandemic challenges in addition to support from FISU and other partners.
Over the past 3 years, AUSF made remarkable achievements in terms of building brand-name events, facilitating the knowledge transfer and capacity building, developing a strategic relationship with regional and continental federations, Asian sports federations, and updating AUSF documents in hopes to strive for good governance.
Responding to the changing situation, the amendment to the Regulations for the Asian University Championships have been approved, which features some changes in terms of the definition of the university teams, participation fees and many other topics.
During the General Assembly, Organising Committees of 2022 AUSF events delivered progress reports, expressing commitments to prepare for the AUSF Football Cup in Jinjiang, China, 3×3 basketball, men’s basketball, Archery Championship in Chinese Taipei and Rugby 7s in Malaysia. While the uncertainties brought by the pandemic still exist, the Organising Committee together with the secretariat will keep a close eye on the pandemic situation, in the hopes to realise safe and successful events.
The pandemic has shaped the world largely and the world now needs to get used to the new normal, accepting offline, online or hybrid ways of working. In the years to come as AUSF works towards their established strategic goals, they continue to build more ‘brand-name’ events to increase the participation, develop more programmes and engaging deep interaction among Asian youth in order to cultivate young sports talents building a sense of responsibility to communities. They also hope to interact with our member federations more, and deepen cooperation with Asian sports federations and other strategic partners in a hopes to commit themselves to building a university community with a shared future. As mentioned at the General Assembly, only through the solidarity of the whole international sports community they would like to overcome the challenges ahead. Next year will mark the 30-year anniversary of AUSF, where AUSF hopes that members will be untied to celebrate in different forms to create new blueprint for the future of AUSF, as mentioned by AUSF President XUE.