by Darwina Natasha
Edited by Fasihah Zulkifli
Photo credit: Olympics.com
HANGZHOU, September 28, 2023: The highly anticipated 19th edition of the Asian Games begins at Hangzhou Olympic Stadium with an awe-inspiring two-hour opening ceremony on Saturday, September 23.
The President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping, officially inaugurated the Games. The opening ceremony was divided into three parts: ‘Timeless Elegance’, ‘Qiantangjiang River's Impressive Tides’, and ‘Collectively Moving Towards the Future’.
Photo credit: New Straits Times
The Asian Games opening ceremony created a further highlight for the pursuit of environmental sustainability by replacing the conventional fireworks display with a digital lighting show.
The ‘virtual digital torchbearers’ are one of the outstanding features of the ceremony, as well as the main torch fuel for the opening ceremony, which contains zero-carbon methanol, making it a world-first.
Photo credit: Olympics.com
This aligns with the central concept of the Hangzhou Asian Games, called the 'Green Asian Games', indicating their goal of hosting an environmentally friendly, carbon-neutral event.
Nevertheless, more than 12,000 athletes from 45 Asian countries and territories are participating in 40 sports, competing for 481 gold medals, including eSports, which is making its first appearance in the Games. Some sports, like football, volleyball, cricket, rowing, sailing, modern pentathlon, and table tennis, had already begun before the opening ceremony.
Photo taken from IOC Media X account
Due to increased COVID-19 cases in the host country, the Asian Games 2022 have been postponed to this year, 2023. The event was initially scheduled from September 10 to September 25, 2022.
"Finally, we can gather for the 19th Asian Games," said Raja Randhir Singh, the acting president of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), to the crowd.
He added, "The one-year postponement was unprecedented in OCA history."***
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