Zhejiang Holds National Game 2000

Zhejiang Holds National Game 2000

China opened a non-Olympic sports event, the National Game 2000, on Sunday afternoon in the coastal city of Ningbo in Zhejiang Province.

The first of its kind in China, the sports meet featured non-Olympic events that are popular in China. It is scheduled to run until June 6.

The events include such things as skilled exercise, fin swimming, traditional Chinese wrestling, Chinese chess and Go.

These games are aimed at developing a balanced sports culture.

More than 2,000 athletes from 38 delegations and seven representative teams from around the country will compete for 184 gold medals in 17 events.

In order to popularize the games, spectators will be invited to participate in some events such as golf, bridge, traditional Chinese wrestling, chess, and Chinese chess.

Forty-seven world champions of China, including Xie Jun, who won the title for chess, and Ma Xiaochun, who won it for Go, will participate in seven events.

From 1979 to 1997, Chinese athletes won 1,093 world championships, 818 of which were won in non-Olympic events, accounting for 74.8 per cent of the total.

"We will try our best to develop the non-Olympic events in the coming years," said Wu Shouzhang, director of the Athlete Department of the State Sports General Administration.

Ningbo, a well-known historical and cultural city in China, has supported the development of sports, especially non-Olympic events, over the past decade.

The National Game 2000 is sponsored by the State Sports General Administration, the All-China Sports Federation and the Ningbo municipal government.