Colourful opening ceremony

Sarath PREMATILAKE from Beijing

BEIJING, Sep. 6 - The 2008 Paralympics got under way at the National Stadium here with a colourful opening ceremony. Over 4,000 athletes from 148 countries, including Sri Lanka, will participate in the Beijing Paralympic Games.

Last torchbearer Zhao Jihua, a former official of the Chinese Disabled Persons’ Federation, reached the Chaoyang Park today to ignite the cauldron, marking an end to the Beijing Paralympic Torch Relay.

A total of 120 torchbearers, including 40 with disability, took part in the relay race. After the race, escorts carried the flame to the National Stadium to lit the Paralympic Torch during the opening ceremony.

Chinese President Hu Jintao said that he is confident that Beijing and China will deliver a high-standard Paralympic Games with distinctive features.

“We have set the goal of ‘two Games with equal splendour’ and, guided by the concept of ‘transcendence, integration and equality,’ made the utmost effort in the preparation for the Games,” said Hu at a welcoming luncheon of the Beijing Paralympic Games.

“Since the 1960s when the first Paralympic Games was held and thanks to the concerted efforts of the international community, the Paralympic Games has become an important cultural and sports event that helps enhance mutual understanding and friendship among the people and promote human civilization,” Hu said while proposing a toast. “This fully demonstrates the global care and support for sports for people with a disability, Hu said.

Four years after collecting five medals including two golds at the Athens Paralympic Games, Chinese Judokas are confident of repeating the feat in the 2008 Paralympic Games on home soil.

“We have not set any specific goal, but I am confident we can get one gold medal at least,” said Zhang Guosheng, team leader of Chinese judo team to the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games.

All the eight members from the Chinese team are amateur athletes while they have gathered from last May for the training camp of the Beijing Paralympics. “It’s the first time that our team has had regular training for such a long time, all the players sacrificed a lot in order to take part in the Paralympic Games,” Zhang said.

Meanwhile, a new category - the individual compound open - has been added to the archery competition at the Beijing Paralympic Games.

The individual compound open is an event which allows archers from all other categories using compound bows to contest for a medal. Twenty men and eight women will be competing in this category in Beijing.

“Since more and more archers were moving from recurve to compound, we started the new category,” said Marco Carpignano, the International Paralympic Committee’s PPSF classifier. The decision by the IPC to add the new division to the competition lineup has been lauded by archers.

“It was in 2004 that they allowed this spot to open, so I was pretty excited. It’s been a long road,” said Canadian archer Kevin Evans.