Dear friends,

I am so delighted to greet you here as 2020 comes to the end and 2021 is around the corner.                                                                                                                     

The outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 has been so disruptive that the international sports movement for this year would be remembered as one of the worst periods in the history of modern sports. University sports was not spared either. Regrettably, many national university sports federations are experiencing perhaps the most critical period of all time, with limited or no financial support, temporary closure of offices and suspension of onsite sport events.  

In the face of the crisis, AUSF took a proactive and decisive action to protect the health and safety of the all the people involved. Four Executive Committee Meetings as well as other communications were organized timely via Zoom calls to cope with the unexpected challenges. Urgent plans were made and timely decisions were taken to give feedback to all stakeholders of the scheduled events in a hope to minimize any potential losses.

Besides meetings to make contingency plans and discuss issues, we adopted a creative approach to ensure the sustainability of the Asian university sports movement. In order to encourage Asian university community to stay together, and build up our confidence of containing the pandemic, the AUSF Run Challenge was organized successfully in late August and September. In addition, 2020 Asian University Chess Championship came into an end successfully on 30 December. This is the first ever AUSF online sport organized by the National University Sports Federation of I.R. Iran under the auspices of the Asian University Sports Federation in cooperation with the Asian Chess Federation, drawing a perfect conclusion to the year 2020.

It is also encouraging that there have been so much effort as seminars, webinars, education forums, workshops and run challenges etc. in online or offline format, made by various NUSFs, universities, and individuals, to promote and strengthen Asian university Sports in 2020, which certainly will be marked in history.

2020, a difficult year for all international sports community is coming to an end. We now look ahead to the future with new hopes. In 2021, 3x3 Basketball, AUSF Football Cup and Rugby 7s are the three FISU qualifying tournaments which we will place strong emphasis on and that we aim to deliver these successfully. We hope to see equally good participation and organization in the other important AUSF activities - the General Assembly, FISU-CUSF Strategic Dialogue as well as the FISU-NUSF Seminar,

COVID19 is ruthless, but we are filled with care and love for each other and that will ensure our victory over the virus. Let’s stand hand in hand and step up our efforts to open up a new page in the post-pandemic era. In the name of AUSF Board members and myself, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the stakeholders - the member federations, the universities, FISU, Continental Federations, Asian Sports Federations, our potential partners - for their involvement and continued support. 

I wish all of you would have a safe and prosperous new year, and look forward to seeing you soon in person.

XUE Yanqing

AUSF President