The 16th Asian games:

Second only to Olympics

by Ranjan ANANDAPPA

More than 14,000 athletes from 45 member countries in the regions will participate in the South-East 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China which commenced two days ago, with a spectacular opening ceremony and will conclude on November 27.

Sri Lanka fielded a contingent of over 104 athletes and thirty nine officials which included coaches, managers etc, for this grand sporting event which will continue till November 27. Golfer Mithun Perera is the overall captain. Will Sri Lanka be able to win any gold medal at the Games? Let's certainly hope so.

Around 10,000 media personnel, 6500 technical officers and about 2000 members of the Olympic Committee Asia (OCA) and the members International Olympic Committee (IOC) are presently at Guangzhou to stage the biggest Asian Games Competition.

T20 cricket which has been extremely popular in the recent past, dance sport, dragon boat, roller sport and chess have been introduced for the first time in this year's games. While competing in most of the 42 sports, Sri Lanka will field some young and budding cricketers with Test cricketer Jehan Mubarak leading the side for the T20 cricket matches.

The concept of the Asian Games was formalised in 1949 in New Delhi and the first Asian Games was held in 1951 in Delhi with only 11 countries taking part, in six sports.

In the 1951 New Delhi Games Sri Lanka won her first medal when M.A. Akbar won the silver for pole vault clearing 3.38m. Thereafter the Lankans were able to win 10 gold medals,10 silver medals and 21 bronze medals in the history of the 59 year old Asian Games.

The events

There will be 42 in all. Aquatics (Swimming, diving,Water Polo, Synchronised swimming), Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Bowling, Cue sports, Canoe/Kayak, Cycling, Chess, Cricket, Dance Sport, Dragon Boat, Equestrian, Fencing, Football, Golf, Gymnastic, Handball, Field Hockey, Judo, Kadaddi, Karate, Modern Pentathlon, Roller Sport, Rowing, Rugby, Sailing, Sepaktakraw, Shooting, Softball, Squash, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Tennis, triathlon, Volleyball, Weight Lifting, Wrestling, Wushu.

Introducing for the first time. Cricket, Dance Sport, Dragon Boat, Roller Sports and Chess.

Cash prizes for world records

GUANGZHOU - Anyone who breaks a world record at this month's Asian Games will be rewarded with US$10,000 (S$12,909), organisers have announced. They will also get a jade trophy under an initiative called the Mount Kunlun World Record Award for the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games.

'I'm very glad the organising committee has set up such an award to encourage the Asian athletes,' said Cai Zhenhua, China's Vice Sports Minister.

'I hope the Chinese athletes will do well and break world

records at the Games.' Zhang Lin, China's first male world champion swimmer, said the new award provided extra incentive to do well.

'When I broke the world record at the Rome world

championships, I was so proud as a Chinese athlete,' said

Zhang, who won gold in the men's 800-metre freestyle.

'I hope I can do well here in Guangzhou this time as well.'

Seven world records were set at the Doha Asian Games four

years ago.

-AFP

Torch relay

The design of the torch is known as 'The tide'. The torch which weighs 98g and is 70 cm long is tall and straight in shape.

The flame of the torch was lit by Chinese President Hu Jintao from a specially designed cowldron in central Beijing. It travelled around the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.

The 30 day torch relay held from October 12 to November 12, covered 23 cities and had 2,068 torch bearers.

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[ Fact file]

* The Asian Games is also known as The Southeast Asian Games, SEA Games and the XVI Asiad.

* Guangzhou, the venue of the Games is the second city in China to host the Games after Beijing in 1990.

* The Games will cover 42 sports with a total of 476 events.

* The main stadium will be Haixin Sha Island

* The Games official emblem was unveiled at Sun-Yat-sen Memorial Hall on November 26, 2006. It is a stylised goat which represents the symbol of the host city Guangzhou which is called the 'City of Rams' or 'City of the Five Rame'.

* The official theme song titled 'Reunion' was released on September 30, 2010.

* About 70 stadiums are to be used.

The Games village will be 622,000 square metres in extent and house more than 40,000.

There are 53 competition venues and 17 training venues. There are four venues held outside of the Gungdong province.

* The total investment for the Games is said to be over 120 billion Yuan.

* Haixinsha Island along with Pearl River were chosen as the venues for the opening and closing ceremonies respectively last year.

* The mascots-five sporty rams were unveiled on April 28 2008. They are A Xiang, A He, A Ru, A Yi and Le Yang Yang.

* The Sri Lankans will compete in 22 disciplines.