Jiangxi to host biggest ever Chinese City Games

Xinhua, September 10, 2011

The seventh Chinese City Games, to be held in Nanchang, the capital city of central China's Jiangxi province, will be the largest ever in its kind, organizers said here on Friday.

"The seventh Chinese City Games will have at least 7,000 athletes from 57 delegations throughout the nation and it's the largest number of athletes in the history of the Games," Chen Junqing, mayor of the Nanchang city and vice director of the Games' organizing committee, told a press conference.

Last City Games held in central China's Wuhan in 2007 attracted 6,300 competitors.

The Games, geared for young athletes, will feature 25 sports with 301 gold medals at stake, most of which are among the Olympics program such as soccer, basketball, table tennis, tennis, archery, track and field, swimming, diving, judo, kayak, shooting, weightlifting and wrestling.

Besides Nanchang, nine other cities in Jiangxi province will also play host to the Games competition.

The City Games is regarded as a platform for young athletes to gain experiences. It's also an opportunity for sports administrators to seek talented athletes and put up the backing forces for China.

Several innovative measures were put forward ahead of this year's Games which have widely won praise, such as canceling overall medal standings and gold medal standings in order to make the domestic coaches focus just on grooming sports hopefuls.

To ensure clean and fair Games, the organizing committee will attach great importance to the doping control by launching extensive drug tests during the Games. The organizing committee will also carry out a campaign of promoting anti-doping knowledge among the young athletes.

The quadrennial City Games was inaugurated in 1988 and the seventh City Games will be held between Oct. 16-25.