China take plaudits after successful Hangzhou Asian Games, set sights on Paris Olympics

HANGZHOU – With a dazzling array of lights and well-choreographed dance sequences that deserve a gold medal in itself, the Big Lotus – or the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium – bloomed once more to bring the Asian Games to a close on Sunday.

In front of 80,000 spectators, including Chinese Premier Li Qiang, the stunning giant virtual torch-bearer which lit the cauldron with Olympic champion swimmer Wang Shun at

the opening ceremony

returned to witness the flame being extinguished.

Again there were no fireworks as Hangzhou 2022 stuck to its green philosophy.

But the hosts concluded the Games with a bang, topping the standings with a record 201 golds from 481 events, two more than their 2010 mark achieved in Guangzhou.

Winning medals in all but one of 32 sports offered at Paris 2024 – surfing was not in this Asiad – will also give China, in their return to staging a major sporting event post-pandemic, a boost heading to the next Olympic Games.

As they dominated the pool, and track and field, Chinese swimmers Zhang Yufei (six golds) and Qin Haiyang (five golds), were named the Games’ female and male MVPs respectively.

Wang Chuqin also shone with an unprecedented quadruple of mixed doubles, men’s singles, doubles and team table tennis titles, while 13-year-old Cui Chenxi won the women’s skateboarding gold.

However, there were also disappointments as they dropped the men’s basketball and table tennis women’s doubles gold, failed to make inroads in football, and were surpassed by North Korea as both countries returned to the weightlifting platform.

A Chinese journalist, who wanted to be known only as Li, said: “Extending its dominance to an 11th straight Games is no longer a surprise or in question.

“At this level, China tends to do well in sports we have a strong tradition in, and perhaps those sports that do have not such a high participation rate.

“But what China is chasing now is closing the gap on world powerhouses in the bigger Olympic sports, just as others are trying to catch up with us in other events.

“We have done well in the pool and gymnastics, but are still a way off in some team sports – football, basketball and volleyball.”

Japan (52 golds) and South Korea (42) finished second and third, while fourth-placed India had their most successful Asiad with 28 golds and crossed the 100-medal mark for the first time with 107 podium finishes.

Singapore, led by flag-bearer and marathon swimmer Chantal Liew, had 41 athletes and officials at the closing ceremony.

The Republic fielded their largest contingent of 427 athletes and finished 20th out of 45 teams.

Shanti Pereira’s women’s 200m success

contributed one of three golds, along with six silvers and seven bronzes, but the gold haul was their lowest this millennium.

With more than 12,400 athletes competing, these were the largest Games in history and largely incident-free apart from some doping cases – seven athletes failed drug tests – while the hoisting of North Korea’s flag, in contravention of World Anti-Doping Agency sanctions, was a running controversy that remains unresolved.

No wonder Olympic Committee of Asia acting president Raja Randhir Singh praised the organisers and noted the facilities have been world-class and comparable to Olympic standards.

The Games ended with a huge carnival that dispensed with the customary parade, as delegations mingled freely at the closing ceremony on a digital turf where over 40,000 illuminated spots turned the pitch into a colourful canvas of glittering images of starry skies, flowers and waves.

Fittingly, the theme for the 75-minute show was a nod to Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi’s famous line: “When I think of Jiangnan (the land south of the Yangtze River), I reminisce about Hangzhou the most.”

Towards the end, a digital memory river flowed towards the stage, a tribute to the hard work and thoughtful services provided by the volunteers as they joined in the celebration before the Games were handed over to the next hosts, Aichi-Nagoya of Japan.

For all the impressive artificial intelligence and digital displays, the past fortnight has been a reminder that it is the human feats which mattered and will be remembered.