Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 23, 2001
IOC Members Impressed by China's National Games
The visiting International Olympic Committee (IOC) members give their thumbs-upto China's ongoing ninth national games, impressed by the athletes' performances and the magnitude of the quadrennial event.
The visiting International Olympic Committee (IOC) members give their thumbs-upto China's ongoing ninth national games, impressed by the athletes' performances and the magnitude of the quadrennial event.
Invited to attend Sunday's closing ceremony of the games, RoqueN.M. Pena from Dominica, Ivan Slavkov from Bulgaria, Ibrahima Diallo from Guinea and Sam Ramsamy from South Africa are the last group of the over 40 IOC members attending the current sports meetat the organizers' invitation.
At a meeting with Yuan Weimin, Chairman of the Chinese Olympic Committee, here on Thursday afternoon, Pena extended his congratulations to the Chinese host upon learning that over 8,000 athletes of more than 40 delegations across China, including thosefrom Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions, are competing at the current national games. He regarded the event as "more or less" a Chinese version of the Olympic Games.
Upon their arrival here last weekend, the four senior officialsfrom IOC have been to some competitions on the spot as well as an exhibition on China's progress in sports over the past 50 years, some places of historic interest and a high-tech park.
The guests noticed that it is the first national games since Beijing won the right to host the 2008 Olympiad in July, and were impressed by the changes taking place in China.