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Tenth National Games ends on sour note
By Lei Lei (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-24 05:19
NANJING, Jiangsu: Although a series of scandals such as match-fixing, referee
disputes and drug-using have stained the tenth National Games of China, Chinese
sports officials said the state will continue to hold big nationwide quadrennial
sports games.
"Although some cases of violating competition rules happened at the Games,
holding them is still the best way of .. doing sports in the whole country,"
said Zhang Haifeng, vice secretary general of the organizing committee of the
Games. "We will make more effort and make the Games better and better." The
Games began on October 12 and concluded yesterday in Nanjing in eastern China's
Jiangsu province,
Since the National Games is the last one before the 2008 Beijing Olympic
Games, it is highly significant in terms of the teams getting ready for the big
event.
"The National Games is a good opportunity for us to find more new talent and
is also a treasure trove for athletes to practice," said Guo Jianjun, deputy
chief of the Competitive Sport Department of the State General Administration of
Sports. "The Games this time have achieved these goals."
This year's National Games attracted almost 10,000 athletes from 46
delegations to compete in 357 events of 32 sports. All of the 28 Olympic sports
were included for the first time.
Guo said the Games saw much success. Fifteen athletes surpassed six world
records 21 times, seven athletes equaled six world records and four new Asian
records were created by three participants. Nineteen National records were
equaled by 19 athletes and one team 25 times.
"The gaps among delegations have narrowed and some new stars have risen up
too, such as the women's singles badminton champion Jiang Yanjiao and women's
10m platform diving gold medallist Yuan Peilin," said Guo.
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