"Good Luck Beijing" will kick off in August. Not the latest
slogan building up the Olympics but a series of sport events designed
to put the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games venues and facilities, a
source from the Olympic organizing committee of the events said on
Wednesday.
With just over a year to go until the Olympics, 2007 will mark a
determinant focal point in the Games preparations. "The venues and
facilities need to be tested while the staff and volunteers need to
be trained," said Yang Shu'an, Executive Vice-President, BOCOG at
the conference.
According to Yang, the testing events will cover 42 tournaments
for 28 summer Olympic events and two Paralympics events, all of
which will go on at the very Beijing Olympic and Paralympics Games
venues and training areas at which the veritable events will take
place.
The 2007 schedule will see eight fixture tournaments organized
by international sports federations accompanied by 18 opens and
friendly tournaments with six more fixture tournaments to proceed
in 2008, including the FINA World Cup and FINA Olympic synchronized
swimming qualifications in the National Aquatics Center, nicknamed
the "Water Cube".
Yang also specified that the specific organizing committee would
ensure all testing events meet the rules and standards of the
concerned international sports committees.
A collection of websites have opened, one for the organizing
committee of the testing events itself and five more providing
information about the events, including ticket details.
(http://www.goodluckbeijing.com.cn/en/)
30 Olympic venues and 46 training areas in Beijing and 4 venues
in other cities are to be used with the Games' equestrian facility
in Hong Kong to face the test.
According to Yang, the two equestrian venues in Hong Kong are
coming together smoothly with procedures finalized for the
transport and quarantine of the horses.
"We are getting ready to meet any challenge from the testing
events," said Yang, "We will try our best to have our facilities
well tested and guarantee the events go smoothly as well."
(China Daily March 22, 2007)