17th World Basketball Tournament for Chinese Opens in Bangkok

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 23, 2001

17th World Basketball Tournament for Chinese Opens in Bangkok

The 17th World Basketball Tournament for Chinese, largest-ever of its kind, kicked off in the Hua Mark National Stadium Thursday in Bangkok.

The 17th World Basketball Tournament for Chinese, largest-ever of its kind, kicked off in the Hua Mark National Stadium Thursday in Bangkok.

The organizing committee, comprising Bangkok Basketball Club, the Sports Authority of Thailand, the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the Naiton Multimedia Group, said the event was aimed to enhance ties among global Chinese through the form of playing basketball together, and to promote the sport in the kingdom.

Among all 131 teams participating in the games, the majority, 69 squads, came from China's mainland. Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the United States and China's Taiwan Province all sent over 10 teams. The rest are from Malaysia, Brunei, Canada and other places.

One striking feature of this tournament is that all players are over the age of 35, up to 70 years' old. Teams are divided into to seven male age-groups and four female age-groups. Each group will generate a champion at the end of the competition, which will last till Sunday.

Started in 1985, the annual event has attracted great attention from Chinese people all over the world. On a voluntary basis and without any limitation for participants, the tournament has grown into a large-scale sport gathering for global Chinese.