PVI activities 2017

Het instituut ISRIC, waarmee het ITC nauwe banden heeft, is in het bezit van een unieke en uitgebreide collectie van bodemprofielen en heeft een zorgvuldig samengestelde collectie ondergebracht in het World Soil Museum.

Met een groep van rond 20 personen zijn we afgereisd naar het geheel nieuwe WSM museum in Wageningen. Om ons al wat voor te bereiden tijdens de busreis had Abbas Farshad een paper over bodem van zijn hand uitgedeeld. Aangekomen bij WSM werden we hartelijk ontvangen door Stefan Mantel.
Stefan gaf een boeiende en uitgebreide uitleg middels een rijk geïllustreerde powerpoint presentatie over wat bodem is en waarom we er verstandig mee moeten omgaan. Hij gaf op een beschouwelijke en informatieve wijze inzicht in diverse thema’s waarbij de bodem een belangrijke rol speelt, zoals: klimaatbeheersing; voedselveiligheid; water; biodiversiteit en landschap. En ook de bijdrage van de bodem aan het Ecosystem , d.m.v. de groei van planten  en gewassen, het regelen van waterhoeveelheid en de kwaliteit, het handhaven van een hoge biodiversiteit, opslaan van verontreinigende stoffen en het leveren van constructie grondstoffen zoals zand of klei. Ter plekke werden we verrast door een bekende en luide stem; oud collega David Rossiter was, zoals we hem kennen, luid en duidelijk aanwezig.
Een rondtoer langs de verschillende bodemprofielen van over de gehele wereld onderstreepte het verhaal van Stefan. Het interactieve digitale ‘decision board’ met de locaties van bodemprofielen over ter wereld en de wetenschappelijke gegevens die daarbij opgevraagd kunnen worden was erg boeiend.

Een erg geslaagde excursie waarbij Stefan een fles wijn gerijpt uit goede Spaanse bodem ontving namens de PVI en van Abbas een bijzonder bodemkundig boek.
Na afloop hebben we nog even een hapje en een drankje genomen bij Hartenstein Brasserie in Oosterbeek, waar we tot onze verrassing verwelkomd werden door Robert Voskuil, die er naast woont! Het voor de oud-bekenden leuk om samen weer wat oude koeien uit de sloot te halen!

We kunnen terug kijken op een zeer geslaagde interessante en informatieve excursie.Wil je mnog meer terugkijken?

Op 11 oktober 2017 vond de cake decoratie workshop plaats in de keuken van het ITC gebouw. Allereerst werd er uitleg gegeven over het aanbrengen van de decoraties. Vervolgens kreeg iedere deelnemer 3 cupcakes om te versieren.

Er was allerlei decoratiemateriaal aanwezig. Vervolgens kon er gezamenlijk een taart versierd worden. De taart werd ter plekke opgegeten en de cupcakes konden mee naar huis genomen worden. Sommige cupcakes werden echter al meteen lekker opgegeten.

On the 11th of October, the cake decoration workshop took place in the kitchen of the ITC building.

First there was an explanation on how to make and use decorations on cake and cupcakes. Then each participant was given 3 cupcakes to decorate. There was a sufficient material present to decorate the cupcakes with. There was also a bigger cake that was to be decorated by all. The cake was then eaten and the cupcakes could be brought home. Although some cupcakes were eaten right after decorating.

On 7^th of June the PVI organized a playful afternoon for the children at Avontura, an indoor playground.

Inside there were many activities and playing attributes for the children. The rain outside could not keep the children from playing to their hearts content. Plenty of playground equipment was available for everyone.

Snacks and drinks were available during the afternoon and late afternoon there was still room for French fries and ice-cream!

On the 3rd of April the PVI organized a cardmaking workshop for its members, staff and students.  The aim of the workshop was to make all kinds of greeting cards with the many materials provided and a little bit of each and everyones own creativity.  

The workshop leader started the workshop by shortly explaining about the aim and materials available aswell as giving some examples. During the workshop advice was given to those who needed it. Drinks and snacks were provided, although some almost forgot as they were so busy making their cards! Amajor thank you goes to the SAB who provided access to the Globe.

All in all everyone made beautiful cards and the results can be seen in the pictures!

Have you ever been able to participate in a nice bike ride, antique boot trip and a walking tour through beautiful scenery for only 2.50 euro? No? Then you missed this opportunity last Friday June 16 2017.

At 12.30 a group of enthusiastic cyclists departed from ITC for a short tour through the backyard of Enschede. The destination was the old Oostendorper watermill near Haaksbergen. To surprise of many inhabitants of Enschede the tour visited places and nature which they had never seen before and were astonished by the beautiful scenery of for example Buurserveen. The group was composed of electric cyclists, regular bikers and even a small back pedal brake bike. This caused some turmoil at places where steeper obstacles had to be concurred and gaps when the slightly strong head wind had most influence on the non-electric cyclists. But as a true ITC PVI family all stayed close together to reach the old watermill, exactly on time for two (yes, you are right, two) touristic tours. The group actually expanded because some participants coming from far, far away or being less mobile, had reached the place by car. Half of the group was then seated in an old Buurser Pot for a boat trip on the brook, the other half started a guided walking tour through waterpark ‘t Lankheet.

The Buurser Pot trip on the Buurserbrook was led by the chief officer and captain who informed us about the regional environment and use of the Pot in ancient times. With some geographers on board and a cartographer who makes cardboard 3D puzzles from the boat, it sometimes looked as if the captain and chief officer were the guests ;-). Learning is about sharing knowledge, and that happened a lot. After 1.5 hours of riding the boat (unfortunately not sailing) on the brook the groups exchanged.

Under guidance of ITC pensionado Jan de Ruiter the waterpark was visited. This park was originally designed to work as flow meadow for water storage and purification. The filtration and purification system, designed with the help of the Wageningen University, was based on reed and used water from the Buurserbrook. Measurements of the water quality before and after showed that some 80% of the quality improved by some 80%. Unfortunately the management of that function of the park was stopped recently and now the reed meadows and other types of vegetation take over control.

At around 5 PM all participants gathered at the terrace of Bi’j de Watermölle for an after drink and snack before travelling back home.

For years this has been organized and named ITC Sports Day but recently we also use the name ITC Sports Tournament. Looking at it from let’s say a scientific point of view, it is not a day but an afternoon and early evening so that would give an argument not to call it a Sports Day. Anyhow on Friday July 13 (oops, are we in for disaster) PVI staff and volunteers from ITC and Rigtersbleek prepared the venue. A brand new volleyball installation which was bought by PVI was set up for the first time. Despite preparation through a Youtube video in which a single person could setup the installation in 20 minutes, it took us 4 almost twice that time. But then, we had an amazing vibrant yellow, blue, red volleyball field. Rigtersbleek staff was at that same time preparing the tents, because the weather forecast showed that right from the start rain was expected.

For a Dutch summary of the summary click here.

A few minutes before 4 Prof. van der Meer as representative of the ITC Directorate opened the Tournament. His motivating speech was larded with quotes from famous persons and an inspiration for the athletes. On the spot it was decided that in 2017 we celebrated the 30th edition of the ITC Sports Tournament, to mark also the 30th employment anniversary of Roelof.

Finally the teams entered the arena’s for battles in soccer, volleyball, jeu de boules and running. A massive 150 participants had registered for the competitions and/or the BBQ. Perhaps due to the forecasted weather not all of them arrived at the venue, leaving even some teams in vein looking for additional team mates. At a certain moment rain started pouring down. Or as they would say “raining cats and dogs” which is as stupid as the Dutch “het regent pijpestelen”. Only the soccer competition initially continued; these strong boys would not let that rain spoil their matches. Until the organizer decided to at least give the referees some time to shelter and warm up.

Of course the rain did not improve the venues for playing volleyball and especially running. Some slides were registered and one casualty occurred after sliding and falling over the finish line of the 40m sprint. In jeu de boule the teams were much quicker with their decision to halt the competition despite the fact that their terrain was actually draining much better and rough terrain is actually part of the game. Perhaps this is due to the origin of jeu de boules; central market places in small French villages where elderly inhabitants get together under shady sycamore trees to nap some wine, eat French bread and throw occasionally a ball.

The jeu de boule competition ended with four teams claiming 2 victories and thus Rigtersbleek referees had to do some calculations to appoint a winner. Team XB successfully claimed the title with 9 points followed by De Ballen (7 points) and CC3C (0 points). A major success for XB who not only implemented a name change since 2016 (BC) but also improved a lot since 2016.

In volleyball all 4 teams played each other and the two teams with most wins would qualify for a final match. SAR won all their matches in the qualifying round and entered the final as favorite against the Ball Busters, who barely lost from SAR with 22-24 in the qualification round. Could Ball Busters improve, find motivation from their narrow loss in the qualification? No, unfortunately for them they couldn’t; SAR smashed them with 22-18 to claim the victory in the 2017 competition.

In the soccer tournament there evolved an interesting competition behind the world famous Tukkerteam. The Baklavas and Waterboys were both winning their matches, losing from Tukkerteam and having a draw in their match. The competition coordinator, Gerrit Polman, had set an additional rule to draw decisions; number of goals scored. But also on that rule The Baklavas and Waterboys did draw! Next the Sports Tournament director looked at the goals difference in their matches against the winners. A tie! Damn what new additional rule could be used next? It was unanimously decided to look at the number of goals received from the winner and Waterboys received only 3 leading to rank 2 whereas The baklavas received 4 goals and finally got ranked 3rd. An amazing competition it was.

Parallel to these competitions some dare devils were trying their best to qualify for the 40 meter sprint finals. On the wet grass surface it was a matter of trying not to slide too much. Andor Engelberts was well prepared with his spikes and qualified for the males finale with the fastest time (5.57s) followed however with aminor margin by Samuel Cheruiyot (5.62) and SAB Sport Commissioner Rupert Green (5.70). Rupert showed why he was elected Sports Commissioner also joining and winning the volleyball competition and running the 2 mile cross. In the final there was only one man in good balance; Samuel. Both Andor and Rupert made some mistakes at the start and then 40 meter is way too short to catch up and recover. Samuel was reigned Champion 40 meter sprint 2017.

In the female competition Jeanna Hyde Hecker, former ITC runner in the International Sports Day back in the old days, qualified with 7.34 followed by the much smaller but highly motivated Novi Rahmawati (7.43). In the final it looked like David against Goliath but unfortunately Novi could not surprise Jeanna who was later in the evening reigned Champion 40 meter 2017 in the female competition.

The girls competition suffered from the unfortunate slide and injury from Rosalba (10yrs old) who qualified 1st with 7.70s. Because of this there was no final and ranks were determined on the basis of qualification times. Girlfriend Stefani (7 yrs old) was second in 8.78s and benjamin Marieke of 3 years old got the bronze medal for her 18.00 second run.

In the boys competition Kaden Hecker (yes, son of the female champion) of 6 years old showed that he had improved over the years. After 9.32s in 2015, 8.83 seconds in 2016 he now ran 8.69s on slippery grounds and won a gold medal. In the same competition Dirk van der Velde enjoyed himself very much. Only 5 years old and 3 feet tall or so he ran 11.44s with smile on his face from his left ear to his right ear. That is the spirit of Run4Fun. If he shows the same improvement towards 2018 as from 2016 (16.90s) to 2017, he could really challenge Kaden next year.

At the time that most participants were cluttering around the BBQ to get warm and dry a little, registration for the 2 mile run sort of exploded. Every moment the organizer would call the participants to the start yet another registrant showed up. In the end 10 participants started for the 2 rounds. Only 2 miles still requires a good strategy and starting too fast can really cause troubles as Yaguang discovered. Manual Garcia much better planned his race and overtook a couple of faster starters to finish first in 5 minutes 53. Chiyang Ma finished 2nd in 6:40 followed on a close distance by Ahmed Elseicy (6:43). Family Hecker collected their 3rd medal because jeanna also won the 2 mile race in 7:44. Nithya Jeevanand had more problems covering the two rounds but she managed in 11:10.

While all athletes and supporters were enjoying their well-deserved BBQ diner, prizes were handed out to the glorious winners but not after first thanking all participants, supporters and organisers for their enthusiastic participation in this fantastic event.

Dutch summary of the summary

Op vrijdag 13 September (vrijdag de 13de ja) is de jaarlijkse ITC Sport Dag georganiseerd. Bij de opening werd spontaan een lustrum aangekondigd om luister bij het jubileum van fanatiek deelnemer Roelof te zetten. Na een enigzins natte start, waardoor de competitie bij Jeu de Boules op eigen houtje werd onderbroken en de organisatie daardoor bij voetbal moest ingrijpen, konden alle competities volledig afgerond worden. Er hadden zich ongeveer 150 deelnemers ingeschreven waarvan 31 voor de voetbalcometitie (5 teams), 14 voor de Jeu de Boules competitie (7 teams) en 30 volleyballers (4 teams). Daarnaast waren er 21 voorinschrijvingen voor de looponderdelen (met uiteindelijk 31 deelnemers). Het voetbal werd gewonnen door het Tukkerteam en voor de nummers 2 en 3 moest de jury extra regelgeving verzinnen om onderscheid te maken. Waterboys werden uiteindelijke 2de gevolgd door The baklavas. Bij het Volleyball was er een team overduidelijk favoriet voor de titel na 3 klinkende overwinningen in de kwalificatie: SAR. En SAR maakte dat ook waar in de finale tegen Ball Busters. Bij het Jeu de Boules hadden maar liefst 4 teams 2 overwinningen maar was het verschil in gescoorde punten saldo duidelijk: XB (vorig jaar nog deelnemerd als  BC) pakte dit jaar de overwinning voor De Ballen en CC3C. Bij het hardlopen zijn er zoals gewoonlijk meerdere finales; meisjes, jongens, vrouwen, en mannen op de 40 meter en een afsluitende 2 mijl cross. De winnaars waren respectievelijk: Rosalba Archilla, Kaden Hecker, Jeanna Hyde-Hecker en Samuel Cheruiyot op de 40 meter en Jeanna Hyde-Hecker en Manuel Garcia op de 2 mijl.

Na al dat sportgeweld werd de sport dag afgesloten met een BBQ die weer goed georganiseerd was door de vrijwilligers van Korfbal vereniging Rigtersbleek.

Uiteindelijk bleven er 16 durfallen over om deel te nemen aan de curling clinic van de PVI op vrijdag 27 januari jl. Na een korte instructie, met de nodige waarschuwingen, door een student in curling broek (?) werden naast de baan de stoute schoenzolen aangetrokken. Short English summary follows . . . .

Je  moest kiezen welk been je voor wilde hebben (glijbeen) en daar een teflon zool onder bevestigen. Onder de andere voet kwam een rubber achtige zool die grip zou moeten geven. Gewapend met een bezem, noodzakelijk voor de balans, werden daara de eerste voorzichtige schreden gezet op het gepebbelde ijs. Als je niet weet wat dat is, had je er maar bij moeten zijn. Voetje voor voetje werd de angst overwonnen en kon de groep proberen om gesteund op de bezem te gaan glijden.

Op de foto's kun je hier en daar het angstzweet wel zien, want het ijs was me toch glad! Later kreeg je niet alleen angstzweet maar ook inspannngszweet als je met enige courage al steppend ook nog eens de bezem wilt te keer liet gaan om de stone verder te laten glijden. Dat zijn geen 2 activiteiten tegelijk, maar een half dozijn. Curling lijkt zo eenvoudig.

De clinic vervolgde met het afzetten voor de aanglij. Eerst met twee stones voor de balans, daarna met alleen de bezem onder je oksel en als laatste dan eindelijk met bezem en stone. Je kreeg een vak van 20 meter om in te glijden en moest de stone toch echt wel vóór de eerste blauwe lijn loslaten want anders was de poging ongeldig. Niemand is ook maar een beetje in de buurt van die eerste blauwe lijn gekomen. Wat aangeeft dat ook dat deel dus gewoonweg enorm lastig was. Er waren er zelfs die de stone maar net  bij de eerste blauwe lijn kregen.

Tijdens de instructie was duidelijk aangegeven dat je beter zacht kon gooien, want dan konden de ploegleden in het veld door middel van het bezemen de steen verder late glijden. Dat mocht pas weer 20 meter verder tot aan The House. Het tegendeel was zeker in het begin waar. De stones vlogen links en rechts en door het midden tot aan de boarding. Het was echt zaak hem net genoeg snelheid te geven om The House te bereiken. Pas na enkele rondes oefenen lukte dat zo nu en dan. Golven van geluk gingen dan over de baan.

Er werden zo leuke potjes gespeeld, soms met geluk, maar steeds meer met enig gevoel voor snelheid en curl. En toen ineens was het voorbij. Een goed teken dat iedereen opkeek en dacht; nu al? Geslaagd was het dus. En kunnen we nu Curlen? Nee, we weten vooral wat we niet kunnen.

Short English summary

It is quite hard to incorporate the Dutch word tricks in the English summary. I we would we most probably would step onto slippery ice. The curling clinic had 16 participants who actually dared to step onto the very slippery ice with one foot on teflon and one on, well, something else which should give confidence. Confidence was far away when we all took our first steps pushing the broom. Let it be that pushing of the starting block with the rough foot, holding the stone and in the other hand the broom on the one slippery foot would give confidence. It gave a laugh and perhaps some bruises. After a while we started with some compettions trying to reach The House woth a stone by giving it enough speed combined with brooming the ice to decrease the resistance and have the stone travel a longer distance. In the end some noce matches were played and we were all surprised to here the signal that the clinic was over. It was so much fun that we lost track of time.

Something was different compared to previous years (again ;-). During preparation over winter only a small group of running enthusiasts continued running for fun. And in the last weeks before the race the organisers, Simon and Wan, actually were afraid that they could not get a team together and would have to cancel participation. The last years that did not happen. Finally from many different corners runners appeared. We were even surprised with an energetic PhD student from the campus, Anwar, who boosted performance of our badminton team in the International Sports Day! In the last week there were even no switches despite the fact that not all runners could be scheduled in teams and on distances of their preference. Another difference compared to previous years. It looked like this year we could participate and finish without strange things and penalties. Everyone was accordingly instructed in the final briefing.

Given the fact that it was the 45th Batavierenrace, the Bata organization implemented something new; a start of the first stage at 22.30 in Nijmegen city center. Much earlier than usual the car with Mark, Manuel and Agbor departed for Nijmegen to get prepared. Mark had to run the first stage to be able to travel back with Wan to Enschede such that he could support his kids the next day in their sports competitions. Manuel and Agbor stayed all evening in Nijmegen and travelled with the night team chauffeured by Gabriel. Super supporter Agbor did very well, his enthusiasm and active support helped the runners and the driver tremendously. In the night team Ozzy was scheduled to kick off again from Nijmegen to Wijlerbergmeer. Followed by the first runner/cyclist exchange team Daniel and Kaaviya. They had to dive into the dark and cold night of Germany. Apparently they were able to do the exchange at relay point Niel because the night team did catch up with them at the next relay point to release Manuel for his long stage. At Rhindern SAB Sport commissioner Rupert Green, the-Jamaican-who-does-not-look-like-Bolt, took over. Just before the famous bridge over the river Rhine near Emmerich, Achmed received the relay vest to bring it across the river back into The Netherlands. The final two stages were an all-Chinese female thingie. Sister in act were Ruodan and Ruosha who found each other in Enschede and are friends for life. They have participated together in the Marathon of Prague, joined Run4Fun together and, well, have funny moves. Well in time the night team arrived in Ulft to meet with the just awaken morning team. It is always a surprise to see in Ulft that the night team is more awake than the morning team, contrary to what you would expect.

It is only on the way back from Ulft to Enschede that the whole night team collapses; in no time there were 7 snores hearable. Only Agbor and Achmed stayed awake to help the driver getting safely into Enschede again. Did you count correctly . . . .? Apparently there were no separate bus tickets available in Ulft and thus one more runner had to be carried home.
The morning team was escorted by Simon who also was scheduled for the first long stage from Ulft. Bata newbie Oscar was the stand-in driver for the bus. At the first exchange a minor problem occurred; perhaps due to the fact that there was no Batavierenrace alumnus in the team (except Simon who was running) or no one actually did read the booklet carefully. The team parked the bus, saw a relay point (and people moving to it) and followed them. To find out, too late, that it was the 2nd relay point of the morning team. After a stiff walk to the other relay point they saw Simon already waiting. His time is registered appropriately, but the time of Sravanthi is for sure extended with a couple of minutes.

After Sravanthi two more ladies took over; Lisanne and Zeyao. Lisanne was lured into the team in the final week and despite the fact she was just returning from an injury the korfballstar did really well. She arrived at the relay point before the team did, but this was primarily caused by the massive congestion of busses at the parking. The time of Zeayo should be compensated by some 4-5 minutes leading to an average of around 11 km/hr like Lisanne. After Zeayo Oscar was scheduled next. His first sport is bouldering which, for people who do not know this sport, looks like human sloths slowly moving across big rocks. In the bata he progressed much faster to hand over to Noé. Noé was our silent force. From the moment he joined Run4Fun, Simon and Wan had their eyes on him. It looked as if Noé was running smooth but not showing everything he’d got. A first hint he gave at the International Sports Day where he finished 4th on the Dune race. In the bata he moved up and up to longer stages until scheduled for 9.4. And he gave a wonderful performance. Our PhD invite Anwar was scheduled with Siefu for the last two stages and runner/cyclist exchange. Anwar finished his stage of 6.4 km in a good shape and Siefu smashed to short distance with a remarkable average pace. Perhaps he was triggered by the fact that the coaches scheduled him on such short stage, out of protection; Siefu already for a long time suffered from a very painful shin splints injury.

In the meantime the overall coach had received the message from Cecillia, scheduled on our final female stage, that she had not recovered from her illness and had to withdraw. Very unfortunate for Cecilia (luckily she had participated in 2016 already) but also for the team since there were no reserve runners available. The noon team left Enschede with all their scheduled runners and supporter Samuel. As ultimate solution it was decided to move Nga to the final stage and schedule Samuel on the female stage of Nga. Unfortunately we could not find time and material to transgender Samuel and thus the objective to finish without penalties would not be reached.

In Barchem the Morning and  Noon team had a nice meet and  greet before the Noon team departed for their stages. The Morning team stayed behind to support Chiyang on his first hundreds meters.
Chiyang was escorted on the bike by Vincent and knowing Vincent that must have been a thrilling 8 kilometers. After runner cyclist exchange tropical surprise Royal took over for her 6K. A piece of cake after her 10K run the week before in the Enschede marathon. The coaches are very happy to see how Royal did improve herself over the lasts months. She handed over the vest to Siavash who covered his stage in his own pace. Still having energy to fly like an eagle to the relay point. At that relay point the overall coach, Wan, reached the noon team to bring running outfit for Samuel, because as supporter he did not bring this gear obviously. He did select something of his liking and when Alby finished at the Grolsch brewery he took over. Well in time the noon team finished at the Old Market.
After a well-deserved break Nga and Yuhang gathered and started their preparation for the final stages. Temperature were rising and we were looking forward to, finally, a nice sunny finish at the Campus. Apparently not all teams were able to finish at the Old Market in time and the restart of the final female stage with Nga was postponed a couple of minutes. A video of Nga passing by the ITC building is available here. 20 minutes later Yuhang also speeded past ITC. He was steadily closing the gap with Nga, who surely enjoyed the race. The ITC supporters at the Campus were expecting Nga to enter first and were surprised to see, too late, that Yuhang in the final half kilometer had overtaken Nga to finish with a really good average of 15.75 km/hr.

In 2017 the ITC team finished 131st of the initially 350 teams (of which 328 finished sort of). Another great result, despite the 15 minute penalty and 7 minutes delay, and memory for a life time. Thanks to (in no arbitrary order):
Gabriel, Agbor, Simon (2x), Emile, Wan, Xie, Samuel (2x), Mark, Yaguang, Daniel, Kaaviya, Manuel, Rupert, Achmed, Ruodan, Ruosha, Sravanthi, Lisanne, Zeyao, Oscar, Noé, Anvar, Siefu, Chiyang, Vincent, Royal, Siavash, Alby, Nga and Yuhang. And not to be forgotten Cecillia who unfortunately could not participate despite her efforts for a swift recovery from flue.