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HANGZHOU: Hosts China racked up a file 201 gold medals earlier than the curtain got here down on two weeks of tears and triumphs on the Asian Video games in Hangzhou on Sunday. The nineteenth and largest Asiad concluded on the 80,000-capacity Olympic stadium with China handing over to Japan for 2026 at a celebratory closing ceremony. In the meantime, His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah despatched a cable on Sunday to Chinese language President Xi Jinping, congratulating him on the success of the nineteenth Asian Video games, hosted by the Chinese language metropolis of Hangzhou.
The graceful and seamless method through which the occasion panned out depicted China in a optimistic mild, garnering the adulation of all the world, His Highness the Amir mentioned in his cable, wishing Beijing perpetual prosperity and improvement. His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Sabah additionally despatched related cables to the Chinese language President Xi Jinping congratulating him on the success of the nineteenth Asian Video games. Dancers holding lit-up props fanned out in the direction of the viewers in a efficiency evoking ocean waves whereas the phrases “love Asia” had been projected on an enormous display screen.
The Video games are usually each 4 years however Nagoya-Aichi has a shorter run-up as a result of Hangzhou was postponed by a yr as a result of China’s now-abandoned zero-COVID measures. Talking on the closing ceremony, a spectator surnamed Xia advised AFP that the Video games made her really feel “very moved and proud”. “The Chinese language workforce did nice,” she mentioned. Taiwan’s Gu Shiau-shuang received the ultimate gold earlier within the day when she efficiently defended her title in girls’s karate. However it was the hosts who dominated over a lot of the fortnight, their 201 golds beating the 199 they collected at Guangzhou 2010.
Their exploits throughout the 40 sports activities on the Video games bolstered China’s standing as Asia’s sporting superpower, topping the medals desk at each Asian Video games since 1982. The competitors shall be a lot stiffer in lower than 10 months on the Paris Olympics. With about 12,000 athletes, this was the most important Asian Video games in historical past and had extra opponents than the Olympics. The Video games had been China’s likelihood to indicate it was enterprise as typical following the Covid insurance policies that largely sealed its borders.
Crowds waving mini Chinese language flags commonly crammed the 54 venues. “Technically we’ve had one of many best Asian Video games ever,” mentioned Olympic Council of Asia appearing director basic Vinod Kumar Tiwari. “Now we have had 97 Video games data, 26 Asian data and 13 world data, so the usual has been very, very excessive and we’re very pleased with it.”
World data tumbled in capturing and weightlifting, with North Korea celebrating their return to the worldwide sporting area after 4 years away by hoovering up six weightlifting golds. However the hoisting of their flag—in contravention of World Anti-Doping Company (WADA) sanctions—was a working controversy in Hangzhou that was by no means resolved. North Korea’s athletes, carrying dazzling white blazers, once more waved their flag on the closing ceremony. The scourge of doping was by no means far-off. Seven athletes failed medication checks and extra will probably be introduced within the coming days.
Paris on horizon
The Olympics on the horizon added further spice. 9 sports activities, amongst them boxing, break dancing and tennis, served as qualifiers for Paris. Breakdancing was showing on the Asian Video games for the primary time, forward of its Olympic bow, whereas eSports was an enormous hit on its full debut. Overwhelmingly younger spectators packed out the futuristic 4,500-seat eSports area and tickets had been probably the most extremely wanted on the Video games. Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, who was adopted by frenzied crowds from the second he landed, received gold with South Korea in League of Legends—and earned an exemption from army service again dwelling.
Chinese language swimmers Zhang Yufei and Qin Haiyang had been named the Video games MVPs and it was within the pool the place the hosts had been particularly spectacular. They received 28 swimming golds—Zhang and Qin accounting for 11 of them—to ship a warning of what they’ll do in Paris. Japan had been a distant second within the last medals desk with 52 golds, down from 75 at Jakarta in 2018, and South Korea third on 42.
India’s pinpoint archers and shooters helped propel the nation to 107 medals, their finest displaying ever. “If you happen to’re analysing why we received much less medals than final time, China dominated and India did surprisingly effectively,” mentioned Japan’s chef de mission Mitsugi Ogata. The small contingent of girls within the Afghan workforce didn’t win a medal however their mere presence despatched a defiant message to their nation’s ruling Taleban authorities. – AFP
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