In the presence of President Bashar Al-Assad and First Lady Asma Al-Assad, the Asian Games in its nineteenth edition kicks off in China
Beijing, (ST) – In the presence of President BasharAl-Assad and First Lady Asma Al-Assad, the nineteenth edition of the Asian Games was officially opened on Saturday, hosted by the Chinese city of Hangzhou.The competitions will continue until the eighth of next October.
The opening ceremony, which was attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping, a number of heads of state, international sports officials, and leaders of participating delegations, in addition to eighty thousand spectators, included many sports exhibition segments. There was also a review of the participating sports delegations, the lighting of the ceremonial torch, and a 3D animation show and augmented reality technology.
Raja Randhir Singh, Acting President of the Olympic Council of Asia praised the efforts of the Organizing Committee of the Asian Games, through its preparations for the continental sports festival, during his speech at the opening ceremony.
Singh said: You have done a wonderful job in preparing for the Asian Games. “The postponement was for a year due to the Corona pandemic, but your diligence and determination will pay off over the next 16 days, and you will receive the greatest reward through achieving the most beautiful and successful Asian Games ever”, he added.
In a statement to SANA, the Head of the Syrian sports delegation participating in the tournament, Omar Al-Aroub said that this tournament is very important for our players, because it comes in second place after the World Olympics, and we will participate in the individual games, and our players came to compete, not just to participate.
Al-Aroub pointed out that the opening ceremony, which dazzled the world with its environmentally friendly paintings, was distinguished by the presence of President Bashar Al-Assad and First Lady Asma Al-Assad, which gave a great incentive to our athletes to exert their utmost efforts to achieve shining medals that will be added to the coffers of Syrian sports. He added that the Syrian sports delegation arrived two days ago and was received officially .Despite the small size of the delegation, the players have the faith and determination to achieve results in the top three places.
More than 12,000 male and female athletes from 45 countries will participate in the tournament, competing for 481 gold medals, which will be distributed in 40 different sports, nine of which will qualify for the Summer Olympic Games scheduled in the French capital, Paris, next year.
This is the third time that China has hosted the Asian Games after Beijing 1990 and Guangzhou 2010. The tournament was scheduled for the summer of 2022, but was postponed to this year due to the repercussions of the (Covid-19) pandemic. The games will be held in 54 sports sites, most of which are in Hangzhou but it also extends to five other cities, namely Ningbo, Wenzhou, Huzhou, Shaoxing and
This is Syria’s eleventh participation in the Asian tournaments, which were first organized in New Delhi, India, in 1951. Syrian participation in the Asian tournaments began in 1978 in the Thai city of Bangkok.
It is noteworthy that Syria participates in five games represented by eight players: boxing (Ahmed Adhaland Muhammad Melis), weightlifting (Maan Asaad), wrestling (Omar
Raghda Sawas