Last week, the inaugural Robin Hood Cup was launched in the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), as it coincided with celebrating UNNC's 20th anniversary.

This sports competition is part of the Sino Foreign University Championship which is jointly organised by UNNC, Duke Kunshan University (DKU), and New York University Shanghai (NYU Shanghai).

The Robin Hood Cup competition includes six major events: badminton, basketball, football, table tennis, tennis, and volleyball. Nearly 700 students, officials, referees, and volunteers from various universities gathered in UNNC, including international students from countries and regions such as the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Singapore, Brazil, Chile, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and Uzbekistan to name a few.

"Our opponents were aggressive, but we also gave it our all and played some amazing shots," Haolin Li, a PhD student at UNNC, said after the table tennis match. He cooperated seamlessly with his teammate Chen Yang and won a mixed double match. Haolin won the men's singles championship at the 2023 Ningbo University Table Tennis Tournament in November 2023. He also previously represented the University of Nottingham UK’s table tennis team when he was on his 2+2 exchange programme as an undergraduate. Nowadays, as a senior player, he has brought great experience and knowledge into the UNNC table tennis team.

There was a fierce match between the women's football teams of UNNC and DKU. Kaya BALGOBIN and Ning Tian served as the captain and vice-captain of the UNNC women's football team respectively, leading their team in physical training every week this semester. After the match, Kaya said, "Our team has made significant progress compared to last semester. Participating in the Robin Hood Cup has also given us a clearer direction for future efforts."

The competitions in other events were also thrilling as students vied for strength and speed while fostering friendships that transcend boundaries. In the end, UNNC emerged as the champion of the Robin Hood Cup with five wins out of nine during the weekend, which also meant that they were crowned the first ever Sino Foreign University Championship Winner with an overall 11 wins across three tournaments.