Macau calling the coming East Asian Games
(China Daily HK Edition)
Updated: 2005-09-29 11:10

No more watching from the sidelines for Macao. It's just a month away from hosting
the 4th East Asian Games. The enclave of 400,000 will be home to 1,920 athletes and 761 offi cials, not to mention thousands of journalists and fans, from October 29 to November 6.

These athletes will fight for 731 medals in 234 events. The East Asian Games’ journey began in Shanghai in 1993, travelling to Busan in 1997 and then to Osaka.

Not Macao alone, but the whole of China, wants the Games to be a grand success. For apart from being the fi rst multi-discipline event to be held in Macao, the Games are
also returning to China after 12 years.

The organizers want them to be the most memorable also because they travel to Hong Kong in 2009. The presence of Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi as the honorary guest at the opening ceremony proves how seriously the enclave and the country are taking the Games.

Macao’s Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau-wah will light the cauldron in Macao Stadium. Chairman of the Games’ organizing committee Manuel Silverio is leaving no stone
unturned to make Macao’s dream turn into reality.

The Games are also been seen as a dress rehearsal for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. So top athletes, including 2004 Olympic 110m hurdles champion Liu Xiang, diving diva Guo Jingjing and 100m breaststroke world champion Luo Xuejuan, will be the main draws of the nine-day event.

In all, 62 champions will defend their tiles won in the last East Asian,
Asian or Olympic Games. The quadrennial event was conceived at the first Assembly of
the East Asian National Olympic Committees (NOCs) in 1991.

Eight teams, the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Macao, Mongolia and Chinese Taipei, have participated in all the three previous games.

North Korea was there in the first, but stayed away from the other two. It is making a comeback to the community in Macao. Guam too will be there. Kazakhstan and Australia were seen in action in a couple of the Games.

The Chinese have been the overall champion in all the three games, picking up 105, 62 and 85 gold medals, respectively. Japan and South Korea were the other top teams.

Though Macao has had to wait till the 3rd East Asian Games to win its first gold, it's determined this time to excel itself as the host.

“This edition of the games has the highest number of participants,” Silverio
says. The earlier games staged 15 disciplines, but Macao will have 17: Aquatics, Athletics, Basketball, Bowling, Dance Sport, Dragonboat, Football, Gymnastics, Hockey, Karate-do, Rowing, Shooting, Soft Tennis, Taekwondo, Tennis, Weightlifting and Wushu.

Such a big event requires great efforts and billions of dollars in investment, which for a tiny enclave of 27.5 square kilometres could be quite a challenge. But Macao has risen to that challenge.

“In 1996, when I was told Macao would host the games, I was wondering how the city could stage a multi-discipline event such as the East Asian Games,” muses a taxi
driver. “The city simply didn’t have the experience.” But the cabbie is confident now that Macao will do more than a wonderful job.

And the new stadiums, the upgraded infrastructure and rows of classy hotels more than reflect his confi dence. But magnificent stadiums and modern hotels do not a successful games make.

So the organizers have left no stone unturned to improve all the other facilities by launching citywide volunteer programmes. In all, 18,000 registered volunteers, as
part of the 21,140 operation staff and 2,515 security offi cers, will be on duty.

And a team of youngsters, most of who can speak Cantonese, Putonghua and English fluently, has been formed to help with the preparations. That should be the right ingredient for success.

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