Press review: The pedometer challenge at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences pits the mayor of Görlitz and Zittau against the rectorate for the first time. And something else is new (Sächsische Zeitung, 25.05.2020).
Octavian Ursu has been dealt a very bad hand. The mayor of Görlitz has been sitting in a meeting of the Board of Directors of Sparkasse Oberlausitz-Niederschlesien since Wednesday morning. Sitting. So that he couldn't walk. But he should and wants to, because the new rector of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, Prof. Alexander Kratzsch, has challenged him to a duel. Him and Thomas Zenker, the mayor of Zittau. The winner is whoever runs more this week.
In the annual pedometer challenge organized by the university and the city of Zittau since 2016, teams from the two administrations have always competed with varying degrees of success. Whoever had more steps on the counter on their wrist after a week was the winner. This year, the Görlitz administration is taking part in the running duel for the first time. "By taking part, we want to show the university's commitment to the two towns where it is located," says Rector Kratzsch. "The community is important to me." In order to make the duel more exciting than in previous years, he called Ursu and Zenker and asked them to take part in a "battle" between the heads of the buildings in addition to the usual competition between employees. The Mayor of Görlitz with a colleague and Zenker with a city councillor will compete against the Rector, his two Vice-Rectors and the Chancellor of the university. Zenker's choice of partner is a little tricky. He has his wife at his side, who is not only a Zittau city councillor but also a university employee. Her bosses take it easy.
Detailed planning for the competition
Zenker has planned his running week in detail. On Wednesday afternoon, for example, he had a press appointment at the border triangle with Deutschlandfunk. Instead of getting in the car, he ran from the town hall to Hartau. He gets up earlier in the morning so that he can take his dog for a longer walk. He now also walks to the town hall more often than he picks up the phone. All in the spirit of the challenge, which aims to draw attention to environmental protection and health care. On Wednesday, he proudly presented the best step figures of the top teams to date.
Rector Kratzsch is also ambitious. On Tuesday alone, he walked 24 kilometers. He circumnavigated Lake O in the morning, took an "active break" with colleagues at lunchtime with a walk to the Napoleon lime tree south of Zittau and persuaded his son to go for a long walk through his home town of Obercunnersdorf in the evening with the prospect of an ice cream. The first of his fellow runners already have sore muscles.
Octavian Ursu can't keep up. He has a week of meetings, he says regretfully. But he wants to try and catch up by the end of the challenge on Friday. He already knows how: The 52-year-old jogs regularly, covering five to ten kilometers at a time.
By Thomas Mielke(Sächsische Zeitung online on 25.06.2020)
