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China Sends 300 Athletes to East Asia Games
A 425-person delegation of China was set up on May 10 for the East Asia Games to be held in Osaka of Japan from May 19 to 27. This is the first time for Chinese athletes to go onto the stage of large international sports games in the new century.
Duan Shijie, head of the delegation and Vice-director of the State Sports General Administration, said that China's participation aims to temper our athletes and make preparation for international sports games in future, especially for the 2002 Asia Games and the 2004 Olympic Games. This team is comparatively young with the athletes averaging at 22.8 years old and the youngest at 16.
He introduced that the 300 athletes of Chinese delegation will compete in 15 formal events including track and field, swimming, diving, basketball, bowling, boxing, gym, handball, judo, wrestling, soft tennis, taekwondo, volleyball, weight listing and martial arts and two performance events, namely hockey and rowing. Soccer will be the only event with absence of the Chinese team. Analysis shows that China is quite competent in seeking titles of track and field, gym, weight lifting, swimming, diving, judo, martial arts, wrestling, boxing, basketball and women volleyball, but not available for an integrated superiority in track and field, swimming, etc.
Other countries and regions attending at the East Asia Games are: DPRK, Hong Kong SAR of China, Japan, ROK, Macao SAR of China, Mongolia, Taibei of China, Kazakstan, Guam and Australia.
The previous two East Asia Games were held in Shanghai of China in 1993 and Pusan of the ROK in 1997 with China winning 105 and 62 gold medals respectively, both ranking the first in terms of total gold medals.
It's reported that China's Taipei will send to the games a delegation of 310 persons who will participate in track and field, swimming, diving, basketball, bowling, boxing, gym, handball, judo, soft tennis, taekwondo, volleyball, weight lifting, wrestling and martial arts.
By PD Online staff member Deng Gang
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