Sports Kaleidoscope

 

The 14th National Winter Games of the People’s Republic of China

The 14^th National Winter Games of the People’s Republic of China will be held next month in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. This grand national winter multi-sports event is organised by the General Administration of Sport of China and is undertaken by the People’s Government of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. This is also the first time for the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to host this type of event.

The National Winter Games, which is held every four years, is the largest winter multi-sports event of the highest standard in the country.  It aims to nurture and train sports talents and improve the level of winter sports of the nation. With the participation of more than 50 delegations, including the one from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the event this time will be participated by the most  delegations and of the largest scale ever. This will be the 6^th time for Hong Kong to participate in the National Winter Games since it first participated in 1999.

Ice and Snow Sports Events

Ice and snow events of the National Winter Games will be held at seven venues including: Inner Mongolia Ice Sports Training Centre, Yakeshi Phoenix Mountain Ski Resort, Jinlong Mountain Ski Resort, Mylin Valley Ski Resort, Daihai International Ski Resort, Longzehu Park and the Hulunbuir Stadium.

Introduction of some competition events:

Ice:

• Speed Skating – athletes compete in speed on an ice surface with the fastest athlete as the winner.
• Short Track Speed Skating – the competition follows a knock-out system and each four to six athletes compete at the same time to reach the finish line first.
• Figure Skating – athletes must combine art and sport and perform various movements with a music accompaniment, and their performance will be scored by judges.
• Curling – the team that manages to keep the sliding stone closest to the button wins.
• Ice Hockey – athletes dribble, pass, shoot and intercept the puck as they attack and defend against each other, with the winner being the team that scores the most goals.

Snow:

• Alpine Skiing – athletes ski down the mountain at high speed along a route and pass through flag gates along the way.
• Snowboarding – athletes need to control the direction of the snowboard with their body and feet and perform various spins and jumps on a U-shaped track so that referees can score them based on the difficulty of their action and posture.
• Freestyle Skiing – at a dedicated ski resort, athletes have to complete a set of prescribed and optional actions with their skis and ski poles.
• Cross Country Skiing – this sports event is divided into uphill, downhill and flat, and each part occupies one-third of the route. Athletes need to use traditional or freestyle techniques to complete this event.
• Biathlon – this is a combination of cross-country skiing and shooting. In this event, athletes get on a snowboard with a rifle on their back and ski poles in their hands. They need to ski in the correct direction and follow the prescribed route in a fixed order, as well as shoot with the rifle every now and then after gliding for a certain distance. The winner is the first athlete to arrive at the finish line.