Asian Games closing today . . .

GUANGZHOU: Just five gold medals to be presented Saturday provided a rather slow-paced denouement for the Asian Games , an event the Olympic Council of Asia president referred to as ``one of the best ever.'' 

While Zhou Chunxiu won the women's marathon, giving China its 198th gold medal of the games, and Myanmar took the men's doubles final in the sport of sepak takraw, giving the country its first, OCA chief Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah told a closing news conference that even a military conflict on the Korean peninsula during the games could not damage the event's image. 

Al-Sabah said Korean athletes ``stood shoulder-to-shoulder to compete'' despite North and South Korea waging a military skirmish last Tuesday. 

Closing ceremony will held at Haixinsha Island in the Pearl River.

Boat shaped stadium in this Island will be the venue of these celebrations. 

The time of starting the Closing ceremony of 16th Asian Games is 20:06. 

During Closing ceremony , the Flag handover to Incheon 2014 for the 17th Asian Games (Asiad) will also take place.

Famous Pop singer of Asia , Rain will be giving a performance during the closing ceremony of 2010 Asian Games.

There is a festival mood all over China , especially in Guangzhou.

Universal Love is the theme selected by the Guangzhou Asian Games Authorities.

On 12th November Opening ceremony of Asian games was conducted at the Haixinsha Island.

Tickets for the 2010 Asian Games Closing ceremony will cost around 2000 to 8000 yuans.

Guangzhou will be using weather controlling techniques to prevent rain from destroying the fun of Asian Games opening and closing ceremonies.

More than 7000 Chinese people including students will be performing programs during the Closing ceremony.

Lot of VVIP's will be coming to China during the games. So high security has been ensured in all parts of the country to prevent any kind of terrorist attacks.

Ten Sports channel will telecast the closing ceremony live at 4:00 pm on November 27 th.

The athletes who came from various Asian Countries and spectators from all over the world will be saying good bye to Guanghozu on 27th November 2010.

China has decided to make the sent off ceremony marvelous.

At Guanghozu in the Haixinsha Island , the famous Indian singer Ravi K Tripathi will be giving a performance in which he will present an Indian and Chinese song.

AR Rahman's Jai Ho will be the another main attraction of the Asian Games closing ceremony.

With the ending of the 16th Asian games , the Host country China has been in the top list of the Asian Games Medal Tally list.

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Preparations for the Guangzhou Asian Games closing ceremonies;

 look at this orderly and uniform military training!

On October 2, the “goodwill hostesses” for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Guangzhou Asian games have begun their military training under the guidance of an drill sergeant. The selection of the Guangzhou Asian Games goodwill hostesses for the opening and closing ceremonies took place at Guangzhou’s Changlong holiday resort, with the 100 goodwill hostess candidates selected from across the country in 13 different competition areas undergoing 15 days of training, with 45 of them going on to become the goodwill hostesses that will lead participating delegations as they enter the stadiums during the opening and closing ceremonies of the Guangzhou Asian Games.

Preparations for the Guangzhou Asian Games closing ceremonies;

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Chinese forces hard train for Asian Games 2010 Read more: http://entertainment.ezinemark.com/chinese-forces-hard-train-for-asian-games-2010-773665065163.html#ixzz16PXymUNK Under Creative Commons License: Attribution No Derivatives

The Asian Games is a tournament taking place every four years among Asian athletes. Officially known as Asiad, it is regarded to be the second largest multi-sport event only after the Olympics. The Asian Games 2010 are set to be held in Guangzhou, China between November 12th and November 27th. The opening ceremony directed by Chen Weiya will begin on November 12th on Haixinsha Island in Pearl River. This year, athletics from all over Asia will compete in 476 events (42 sports), which make it the largest event in the history of the Games. He assisted director Zhang Yimou at the Olympics 2008 in Beijing.

To make sure the security of Asian Games 2010, the Governor of Guangdong Province has installed more than 2.6 million surveillance cameras. In addition, China’s armed forces are taking part in a hard physical training at Dongguan Drill Base. Their duty is to ensure strict security so that there will be no mistakes during the Games. It is reported that Guangzhou authority has invested $29 million in security for the event. Several regulations including fines for smoking in public have been introduced. For instance, those who are caught lighting up will be charged about $7.6.

Below you will have chance to see extraordinary images showing how hard Chinese soldiers are training for the upcoming Asian Games in November.

The anti-terrorism drill session at Dongguan Drill Base

A group of six soldiers are training with a log

The extreme physical training is to ensure strict security during the event

China’s armed forces with extreme physical training missions

The Governor of Guangdong Province hopes no mistakes to be made during the Games

The Guangzhou police authority has spent $29 million in security

Beside the physical training, the drills consists of fake rescue missions

The Asian Games is held every four years involved athletes all over Asia

The Asian Games 2010 are scheduled to occur in Guangzhou, China from November 12th to November 27th.

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Ceremonial hostesses’ good looks like flowers, curvaceous figures amaze Korean athletes

19th evening, the Guangzhou Asian Games baseball final began in the Guangdong Olympic Sports Center. In the end, the Doha Asian Games champions Chinese Taipei team lost 3 to 9 against the Beijing Olympic Games champion Korea team, unable to defend their title. Four years ago at the Doha Asian Games, the Korean team successively lost to the Chinese Taipei and Japanese teams, ultimately only winning a bronze medal. With this year’s Asian Games, the Korean team did its best to field its best players, including American Major Baseball League’s Choo Shin-Soo and Japanese Nippon Pro-Baseball League’s Kim Tae-Kyun and others all brought together in one team, and have been called by the media as “history’s most powerful lineup.”

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India record its best-ever medal haul in Asian Games

Guangzhou:  India created history by recording their best-ever performance in  Asian Games with 64 medals, including a record 14 gold, with star boxer Vijender Singh providing the icing on the cake by bringing the last yellow metal on the penultimate day here on Friday.

The men's and women's kabaddi teams expectedly maintained their supremacy by clinching the gold before the women's 4x400m quartet and Vijender (75kg) bagged a yellow metal each on the most productive day for India in the mega-event.

With the addition of 11 more medals today, India's tally climbed to a record 14 gold, 17 silver and 33 bronze (total 64), the biggest ever haul in the Asian Games so far, to jump to the sixth place.

India's best medal haul till date was recorded in the 1982 Games in Delhi when they had won 13 gold, 19 silver and 25 bronze for an overall tally of 57. India had finished 10 in the last edition of the Games in Doha with a tally of 10-17-26.

India have now completed their engagements in the Games and their final standing will depend after the completion of the six events -- men's and women's marathon, men's and women's doubles sepaktakraw finals and women's volleyball final -- tomorrow.

China leads the medal table with 197 gold, 117 silver and 98 bronze (total 412), followed by South Korea (74-63-91) and Japan (47-73-94) at second and third respectively.

While the kabaddi teams did not sweat much to keep their reputation intact in rather lopsided finals, Vijender made amends for his bronze-finish in Commonwealth Games with a gold here while compatriots Santosh Kumar (64) and Manpreet Singh (91kg) settled for a silver each.

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Preeja, Sudha tear formbook apart to create history

From Rajeev K, Guangzhou, Nov 21, DH News Service:

Standing on top of the podium, Preeja Sreedharan struggled hard to keep her tears in check.

Cry, she didn’t, but her face truly captured the story of a gutsy run that tore the formbook to shreds at the Aoti Main Stadium on Sunday. An Indian winning the women’s 10000M gold at the Asian Games was unthinkable till Sunday. Indians winning gold and silver would have been beyond the wildest of dreams. That is exactly what happened on the day, with Preeja producing a national record breaking performance and Kavita Raut following her home in second position, stunning a 70,000-strong Sunday crowd. The opening day of the athletics programme had more surprises in store from India with Sudha Singh delivering their second gold medal of the night in the women’s 3000M steeplechase, edging out China’s Jin Yuan in an exciting finish. The women’s 10000M was introduced into the Asian Games programme at Seoul in 1986 and no Indian had won a medal in the event till Sunday. Preeja and Kavita had other ideas on a warm evening but they had a tough task in store with the field boasting of a clutch of champion performers. Defending champion Kayoki Fukushi, ninth at the World Championships last year and the season‘s leader with 31:29.03, led the Japanese challenge while Bai Xue, world marathon champion and the Asian champion in this event, was China’s best bet. Also featuring was Bahrain’s Shitaya Eshete Habtegebrel, a former Ethiopian. Clear leader But as the race unfolded, there was no clear leader even though it was Fukushi who led the runners through the first 2000 metres. Hikari Yoshimoto, the other Japanese in the fray and Shitaya got into the picture with the Indians staying close to the leaders. With two laps to go, Shitaya surged ahead and Preeja followed. Yoshimoto tried to keep the Japan challenge going but at the bell, it was the Bahraini who was in front. Preeja, showing a sprinting ability not often witnessed, then swung into action and pulled away decisively. Shitaya had another shock in store as Kavita surged ahead for the silver. Preeja timed 31:50.47, bettering her own national record of 32:49.47 while Kavita (31:51.44) also came under that mark. “I am thankful to all those who prayed and supported me, I was always confident of this success” said the 28-year-old Preeja, who was in tears just a month back after a bout of fever had deprived her of a chance to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games. “This medal is for my brother and mother,” added the Railway employee, who lost her father early and endured several hardships to reach this level. Sudha Singh was another surprise winner, timing a national record of 9:55.67 in the event that is making its debut here. China’s Jin Yuan closed in menacingly in the final few metres and even celebrated prematurely at the finish, but that fraction of a second cost her as the Indian nicked the gold. “I didn’t expect the gold, the Chinese runner put huge pressure on me,” said Sudha, who hails from Rae Bareilli in Uttar Pradesh. India’s great day was also good news for coach Nikolai Snesarev, with all the three medalists coming from his stable. “I have a bunch of dedicated girls, they worked very hard over the last four months,” said Snesarev, a hard taskmaster if ever there was one. In other events, India’s HM Jyothi qualified to the 100M semifinals, clocking 12.04 seconds. Abdul Najeeb Qureshi and KK Rane also progressed into the semifinals. Manjeet Kaur and Mandeep Kaur made the final of the women’s 400M while SK Mortaja (47.75) and Bibin Mathew (46.93) missed out in the men’s quarter mile. Results: Men: 5000M: Mahbeen Ali Hasan (Bahrain) 13:47.86, 1; James Kwalia Kurui (Qatar) 13:48.55, 2; Felix Kiore (Qatar) 13:49.31, 3. Sunil Kumar (India) 14:01.76, 8. Hammer throw: Dilshod Nazarov (Tajikistan) 76.44 metres, 1; Kaveh Mousavi (Iran) 68.90, 2; Hiroaki Doi (Japan) 68.72, 3. 20Km walk: Wang Hao (China) 1:20:50, 1; Chu Yafei (China) 1:21:57, 2; Kim Hyunsub (South Korea) 1:22:47, 3. Harminder Singh (India) 1:26:33, 6; Baljinder Singh (India) 1:28:06, 7. Women: 10000M: Preeja Sreedharan (India) 31:50.47 (National record. Old: 32:04.41) 1; Kavita Raut (India) 31: 51.44, 2; Shitaya Eshete Habtegebrel (Bahrain) 31:53.27, 3. 3000M steeplechase: Sudha Singh (India) 9:55.67, 1; Jin Yuan (China) 9:55.71, 2; Minori Hayakari (Japan) 10:01.25, 3; OP Jaisha (India) 10:18.97, 5. Shot put: Li Ling (China) 19.94 metres, 1; Lijiao Gong (China) 19.67, 2; Lee Mi Young (South Korea) 17.51, 3.

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Asian Games: Golfers, sailors clinch silver as India bag four medals Read more: Asian Games: Golfers, sailors clinch silver as India bag four medals

GUANGZHOU: Golfers and sailors contributed to the medal collection by fetching a silver each while cueist Aditya Mehta and squash player Saurav Ghosal bagged bronze as India dipped to the 14th position on the medal table on the eighth day of competitions in the 16th Asian Games on Saturday.

The men's hockey team had a good day as they pipped arch rivals Pakistan 3-2 to cruise into the semifinals while the tennis players assured India of at least three more medals alongwith star pugilists Vijender Singh and Suranjoy Singh who stormed into the semifinals.

But the failure to win enough medals, particularly gold, resulted in India slipping to 14th position in the medal rostrum, their lowest spot in the competitions so far.

With the addition of four more medals, India's medal tally climbed to two gold, 10 silver and 12 bronze. India had finished tenth on the medals table in the last Asian Games in Doha with a tally of 10-17-26.

There was no let-up in China's stranglehold in the Games as they continued their gold harvest to maintain their position atop the table with a whopping tally of 137-64-66. South Korea (52-43-56) and Japan (29-52-55) were in the second and third position respectively.

The quartet of Rashid Khan (72), Abhijit Singh Chadha (76), Abhinav Lohan (72) and Rahul Bajaj (72) won a silver with a combine four-day score of 10-over 874 to give the first medal for the country from golf.

The Indian sailing team comprising Balraj, Balakrishna Helegaonkar, Atool Sinha, Farokh Tarapore and Sekhar Singh Yadav also had their moment of glory when they clinched the silver in the open match racing event.

The two bronze medals came through Aditya Mehta who lost his snooker singles semifinal encounter and Sourav Ghoshal, who lost in the semifinals of squash singles event.

The women's hockey team also kept themselves on course for a bronze medal with a thumping 6-0 win over Kazakhstan in their penultimate round robin match.

The golfers provided the spark by winning the silver in the team event. However, in the individual competitions, in which Shiv Kapur won a gold in the 2002 edition, the Indians could not make much of a mark.

Rashid was highest-placed at tied fourth with a total of three-under 285. Abhinav was tied ninth with a four-day tally of three-over 291. Rahul was way down at tied 39th after totalling 22-over 310.

In men's snooker singles, Aditya had to settle for a bronze after losing to Chun Marco Fu Ka of Hong Kong 1-4 in the semifinals. His bronze was India's fourth medal from cue sports, including a gold won by Pankaj Advani in the billiards event.

The other two medals were in men's snooker team event (silver) and men's 8-ball pool (bronze by Alok Kumar).

Tennis assured three more medals with Sania Mirza scoring an upset 6-2, 6-3 win over second seed Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand to enter the semifinals while the duo of Somdev Devvarman and Sanam Singh also made it to the last four stage in men's doubles.

Sania then combined with Vishnu Vardhan to assure a bronze in the mixed doubles event as their fourth seeded Taipei rivals -- Chia Jung Chuang and Yi Chu-Huan -- retired mid-way.

Unseeded Sania, a silver medallist at 2006 Asian Games in Doha and also at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, relied on her power-packed strokes to beat the Thai, who once figured in top-20 and now stands at number 58 in the world.

The world number 166 Indian will next face third seed and world number 69 Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan.

Somdev, who has already won a bronze in men's team event, and Sanam beat the Chinese pair of Yan Bai and Zhang Ze 6-2, 6-4 in men's doubles quarterfinals.

The Indian men's hockey team notched up their fourth straight win over traditional rivals Pakistan this year with a 3-2 victory in a group B match to book a semifinal berth.

Penalty corner specialist Sandeep Singh struck twice in the third and 48th minutes while Dharamvir Singh netted a field goal in between to ensure India's third successive victory in Group B.

Rehan Butt (fourth) and Shakeel Abbasi (43rd minute) scored for Pakistan. Both the goals conceded by Rajpal Singh-led India were off defensive errors.

With twelve points in their kitty, India are sitting on top of the table with one match to go against Japan on Sunday.

Indian boxers also continued to sizzle with Vijender Singh (75kg) demolishing Korea's Deokjin Cho to enter the semifinals and assure himself of at least a bronze medal.

The 25-year-old Olympic and World Championship bronze-medallist got the better of Cho 13-2 in a one-sided contest at the Foshan Gymnasium to take the total number of Indian boxers in semifinals to three -- the other two being Dinesh Kumar (81kg) and Paramjeet Samota (+91kg).

The dashing Haryana-pugilist, who won a bronze in the previous Asian Games in Doha, will now face Mohammad Sattapour of Iran in the semifinals.

Another pugilist Amandeep Singh blanked Pakistan's Muhammad Waseem to make the light flyweight 49kg quarterfinals while Suranjoy pulled off a hard-fought 4-2 triumph over Uzbekistan's Shahriyor Isakov.

In squash, Saurav Ghosal settled for a bronze medal after losing his semifinal clash to top-seed Mohammad Azlan Iskandar of Malaysia in the men's singles..

World ranked 25 Ghosal waged a grim battle against an opponent ranked ten places higher than him in the world chart to eventually lose 5-11, 11-6, 5-11, 10-12 at the Town Gymnasium.

India's male archers struggled to find their bearings on and were placed fourth in the qualification stage.

The Indian quartet of Rahul Banerjee, Tarundeep Rai, Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar totalled 3996, way behind champions Korea's new Games record score of 4114, which gave them the lead on the first day of the two-day men's event.

In handball, the Indian men notched up their first win with a 56-22 victory over Mongolia but that was not enough for them to advance to the knock-out round.

India's women hoopsters suffered their second consecutive defeat, losing 44-98 to South Korea in their Group A preliminary match while women spikers continued to flounder and were outplayed 0-3 by Japan.

Indian cyclists, however, failed to lift themselves from their dismal show so far with Sombir finishing 15th in the men's Individual Time Trial while Sunita Devi signing off 10th in the women's section of the same event.

Sombir clocked 1:16:45.24sec in the 53.4km race, covered in three laps of 17.8km each.

Sunita, on the other hand, returned a timing of 56:00.87sec in the women's race which covers a distance of 35.6km in two laps of 17.8km each.

India's campaign in the taekwondo competitions ended on a dismal note as Sunil Kumar and Kamineni Srilakshmi crashed out of their respective events.

Read more: Asian Games: Golfers, sailors clinch silver as India bag four medals - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/16th-asian-games-2010/india-news/Asian-Games-Golfers-sailors-clinch-silver-as-India-bag-four-medals/articleshow/6961096.cms#ixzz15psfZLUS

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Oksana Baiul

Oksana Baiul

Date of Birth

16 November 1977, Dnepropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine]

Birth Name

Oksana Sergeyevna Baiul

Nickname

Marusia
The Swan of Odessa
Ksusha

Height

5' 4" (1.63 m)

Mini Biography

Only child of Sergei and Marina Baiul. Her father abandoned the family when she was 2, and she began skating at 4. Her grandfather, grandmother, and mother all died within 3 years, and Oksana was alone at 13. She moved in with her new skating coach, and trained for the Ukranian National Championships and 1993 World Championships, both of which she won. In 1994, she won the Olympic gold medal, after injuring herself during a practice session. After the Olympics, she moved to the United States, and has skated in professional tours, such as Stars on Ice, since her Olympic victory. After a battle with alcohol, Oksana is now sober and training in Richmond, Virginia. She hopes to regain her amateur skating status and compete in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. She has written 2 books, "Oksana, My Own Story" and "Secrets of Skating".

Trivia

Arrested for drunk driving. [January 1997]

Won Olympic gold medal for figure skating. [1994]

Silver Medal, 1994 European Figure Skating Championships

Gold Medal, 1993 World Figure Skating Championships

Reunited with her father, Sergei, during the summer of 2003.

Her performance in "Ice Wars 10: North America vs. The World", marked her return to figure skating after a two-year hiatus.

She became engaged to be married to clothing manufacturer, Gene Sinuk, in the summer of 2004.

Has her own clothing line, The Oksana Baiul Collection.

Is an only child.

Skated in the 2008 Stars on Ice Tour. This tour was the first ever to go to Puerto Rico.

Broke off her engagement to Gene Sinuk in 2005.

Where Are They Now

(January 2008) Hato Rey, San Juan, Puerto Rico with the Stars on Ice Tour. (Coliseo de Puerto Rico Jose Miguel Agrelot: Jan 26 and 27, 2008)

Oksana Baiul, Sexy Sport Stars, skating stars,

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