Winning Desert Challenges
May 12-2021
The NSD’s MBA team has taken home many prizes from the just concluded 10th Asia-Pacific Business Schools Desert Challenge, including the top award celebrating the completion of the contest by all team members.
Mr. Gao Zhongkun, MBA Class of 2016, was crowned champion in the men’s C category. Ms. Shang Hongbo, MBA Class of 2018, and Ms. Sun Tingting, MBA Class of 2019, finished 7th and 9th in women’s Super A and B categories respectively.
A total of 108 students and alumni – from Class of 2004 all the way to Class of 2020 – as well as some of their family members represented the NSD in five categories of contests. All fought fearlessly to the end and proudly crossed the finishing line. The NSD team was sponsored by COFCO Great Wall Winery.
The Desert Challenge has been held annually in the Tengri Desert in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region since 2012. This year saw the participation of over 4,000 contestants from 121 business schools in the Asia Pacific Region, making it the world’s largest on-foot desert competition. It lasted three days and was categorized by three distances: 100 km, 70 km and 36 km, with individual and team rankings up for grabs.
The NSD has sent an MBA team to the event since 2014 and kept setting stellar records, winning the top team award five times as well as numerous individual ones.
In another challenge taking place in the Gobi Desert and ending on May 5th, Mr. Gu Bing, an alumnus of the NSD’s Sports MBA program, won the championship in the A+ category – the most grueling of all - clocking 11 hours and 41 minutes in the 121-kilometer individual competition.
