The 19th Asian Games got underway in Hangzhou, Zhejiang’s provincial capital on Saturday, and yesterday Macau’s Song Chi Kuan won the bronze medal in the man’s martial art modality “changquan”, the first medal won by Macau at the Games.
The Games started on Saturday and will last until October 8. Hangzhou is the third Chinese city to host the Asian Games, after Beijing in 1990 and Guangzhou in 2010.
The opening ceremony of the 19th Asian Games took place at 8 p.m. in Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium in Zhejiang province and was declared open by President Xi Jinping, with Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng invited to attend the ceremony.
Song went through his routine as the third out of 14 athletes that had already performed in the competition, and was ranked 1st with 9.76 points due to his standardised movements and stable performance, until Sun Peiyuan, the previous gold medallist of the national team, entered the competition.
Sun scored 0.08 points more than Song and was ranked 1st with a score of 9.84 points, replacing Song to finally win the gold medal.
Meanwhile, Indonesia’s Marvelo Edgar Xavier, with a score of 9.786, won the silver medal for the second consecutive time which dropped Song to third giving him the bronze.
The Macau delegation, consisting of 273 local athletes, will participate in 21 sports comprising aquatic games (swimming, water diving, artistic swimming), athletics, badminton, basketball (3x3), boxing, canoe sprint, cycling (track/road), dragon boats, fencing, golf, judo, karate-do, squash, table tennis, taekwondo, triathlon, wushu (taolu and sanda), intellectual games (Chinese chess, wei qi chess and electronic sports), shooting, tennis, and beach volleyball.
Bronze medalist Song Chi Kuan of Macau competes during men’s changquan final of wushu at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, yesterday. – AFP
