A Macau team will compete in the two open category figure skating events of the 14th National Winter Games (NWG), namely the freestyle skating and the short skating programme event, from Saturday to Monday next week, according to a Sports Bureau (ID) statement on Saturday.
Led by ID President Pun Weng Kun, the Macau sport delegation attended the game’s opening ceremony held in the Inner Mongolia Ice Sports Training Centre in Hulunbuir on Saturday.
The NWG, which is held every four years, was originally scheduled to take place from February 16 to 26 in 2020 in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, but was postponed to February 17 to 27 this year owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the General Administration of Sport of China (GASC).
Participated in by more than 3,000 athletes from 35 delegations from 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) and the Hong Kong and Macau special administrative regions, athletes in this year’s NWG will be competing in eight major events, 16 sub-events and 180 minor events, according to a GASC statement yesterday.
Organised by GASC, the NWG is a multi-winter-sport national event on the largest scale and at the highest level, with the aims of nurturing and training outstanding talent in competitive sport, promoting and encouraging increased participation in winter sport, as well as further enhancing the national strength and competitiveness in the area of winter sport, according to the a separate statement by the central government agency responsible for sport.
The 14th NWG comprises eight major competition events, comprising skating (speed skating, short track speed skating and figure skating), skiing (alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, snowboarding, ski jump, cross-country skiing and Nordic combined), biathlon, curling, ice hockey, bobsleigh (bobsleigh and skeleton), luge and ski mountaineering, according to one of the statements.
The Macau delegation, including Macau Sports Bureau (ID) President Pun Weng Kun (third from left) attends the opening ceremony of the 14th National Winter Games (NWG) in the Inner Mongolia Ice Sports Training Centre in Hulunbuir on Saturday. – Photo: ID
