China to send 439 athletes to Hangzhou Asian Para Games

BEIJING, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- China on Wednesday announced a delegation of 723 members, including 439 athletes, for the upcoming Asian Para Games to be held in Hangzhou from Oct. 22-28.

The 221 male and 218 female athletes will compete in 397 events of all 22 disciplines of the Hangzhou Asian Para Games.

The average age of the athletes is 26.5 years old. The oldest is the 58-year-old table tennis player Gao Yanming and the youngest is 13-year-old chess player Yang Yixiao.

Among them, 247 athletes have college degree or above. And all the 439 athletes are amateurs as they are farmers, students, workers, and freelancers.

The delegation eyes keeping the leading position in the Asian Para Games, demonstrating both sports performance and morality, living up to the commitment of "two games of equal splendor", according to the deputy head of the delegation Zhao Sujing.

"Just like my teammates, I am so proud to compete at home, I will abide by the rules and regulations, overcome the difficulties and strive to surpass myself in Hangzhou," said Wen Xiaoyan, the track and field gold medalist of the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics and the Tokyo Paralympics.

"Half of the team retired after the Tokyo Paralympics, and the majority of our team now are around 23 years old. We were the champion in 2018, so we will seek to retain our title in Hangzhou," said Chen Qi, coach of the Chinese Women's wheelchair basketball team.

"I hope the veterans could pass on their resilience and love for the wheelchair basketball to the rookies, and we will test ourselves in Hangzhou before preparing for the Paris Paralympics," he added.