Digital torchbearer lighting the cauldron
On the spectacular opening ceremony of the Asian Video games on September 23, for the primary time a digital torchbearer performed a task in igniting the cauldron. Sometimes called China’s tech hub, Hangzhou emphasised the “Sensible” theme of the Asian Video games, involving thousands and thousands in a digital torch relay.
Through the opening ceremony, a digitally-animated determine, symbolizing these torchbearers, traversed the long-lasting Qiantang River, earlier than lighting the wave-shaped cauldron alongside China’s Olympic swimming champion Wang Shun.
Tears for a rival
China’s swimming star Zhang Yufei had each purpose to smile on the Hangzhou Asiad, after clinching six gold medals. However she shed tears after 23-year-old Rikako Ikee took the bronze medal within the Girls’s 50m Butterfly.
Japan’s Ikee had dazzled the world by grabbing six gold medals at Jakarta 2018, earlier than a devastating leukemia prognosis threatened to place her promising profession to an finish. However she launched into a brave battle towards the sickness and made a triumphant return to the pool.
On the World Championships earlier this yr, Zhang confirmed Ikee the phrases she wrote on her palm: “Be the perfect of your self.” In Hangzhou, seeing her rival-friend as soon as once more exhibit her capability within the pool, a tearful Zhang ran over to embrace her with heartfelt congratulations.
Applause for legendary
athlete defying age
Discussing athletes who might be described as “legendary”, Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan is unquestionably one in every of them. The 48-year-old has gained eight Asian Video games medals, together with two golds. As way back as 1992, she represented the Unified Group of the previous Soviet Union on the Olympics to seize the Girls’s Group gold medal.
In 2002, when Chusovitina’s son was identified with leukemia, she acquired German citizenship to compete at international occasions for a better earnings and higher medical therapy. Now that her son has recovered, Chusovitina is constant her Gymnastics journey out of affection for the game.
Though she narrowly missed out on a medal in Hangzhou by a mere 0.15 factors within the Girls’s Vault, she was greeted by thunderous applause from spectators. She now has her sights on the 2024 Paris Olympics. “I really like Gymnastics, and this occupation brings me nice pleasure,” she mentioned. “I’m simply doing what I really like, so why ought to I cease?”
Sharing glory with late coach
“Did you see? I’ve performed it,” China’s sprinter Ge Manqi murmured tearfully after claiming the Girls’s 100m title at Hangzhou Asian Video games. She devoted the medal to her late coach Liu Zhaoxu.
Ge, 25, had been coached since she was 13 by Liu, whom she deemed as “half a father” and accompanied her via ups and downs. Liu died final November as a consequence of sickness, however Ge nonetheless remembered her promise of successful the Asiad gold.
One other of Liu’s expenses, Lin Yuwei, was topped within the Girls’s 100m Hurdles and likewise paid tribute to him after successful. The music performed on the stadium following the competitors, “Brightest star within the night time sky”, may finest describe how the pair felt: “At any time when I get misplaced within the darkness of night time, you mild for me the street forward.”
Victory of a defeated group
As Afghanistan’s Rugby Sevens group took on their opponents within the Asiad area, they appeared outmatched, watching the scoreboard soar to a frightening 52-Zero in simply 16 minutes. Nevertheless, for the group, who completed 12th within the occasion, merely stepping onto the Asiad court docket was a victory in itself.
These gamers, whereas enthusiastic about Rugby, held numerous professions, from building staff to drivers, and have been based mostly in numerous nations. With out official sponsorship, they self-funded their journey to Hangzhou, arriving simply 5 days earlier than their matches.
“Afghanistan has been via lots of hardship over the previous 40-50 years,” mentioned group captain Omar Slaimankhel. “Hopefully we will maintain making [Afghan people] proud.”
Sprinters making historical past
On the night of Sept. 30, Hangzhou Olympic Sports activities Centre Stadium erupted in tumultuous applause and cheers, as Chinese language sprinters Xie Zhenye and Ge Manqi romped to gold within the Males’s and Girls’s 100m respectively.
These victories marked the primary time ever within the Asian Video games historical past that athletes from one nation have gained each Males’s and Girls’s 100m titles.
From Lao Yi, winner of the Males’s 100m at Guangzhou 2010 and Su Bingtian, the Males’s 100m Asian document holder, to Xie and Ge, China’s progress in 100m Sprints is clear in recent times. “Our subsequent objective is the Paris Olympics,” introduced the bold Xie. -Xinhua