4th National Farmers Sports Meet Opens in Sichuan ProvinceThe fourth National Farmers Sports Meet, the last one in this century, opened in Mianyang, Sichuan Province on October 29.Farmer athletes and coaches from across China and more than 20,000 spectators gathered in Jisheng Sports Center to celebrate their own festival which takes place once every four years. The Sports Meet, sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, the State Sports General Administration and Chinese Farmer Sports Association and undertaken by the Sichuan people's government, is a grand gathering that involves the most players, is of the largest scale and the most influential. The games include 13 events, namely, track and field, basketball, table tennis, swimming, Chinese wresting, Chinese chess, bicycle loading, wushu (martial art), militia and military, dragon boat race, dragon and lion dances, shuttlecock and kite. Except for the event of swimming which took place earlier in August, some 3,300 athletes from 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions nationwide, including farmers from Taiwan, will compete for 410 gold medals in the coming six days |
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