Guangzhou 2010 XVI Asiad

China was able to prove its leadership and its efficiency by organising one of the biggest sporting events when it successfully concluded the 16th Asian games which were held in Guangzhou city in China.
Guangzhou is the second Chinese city to host the Games; Beijing hosted them in 1990. The games started on the 12th of November 2010 and lasted for 16 days until the 27th. The 2010 Asian Games were also known as the XVI Asiad.

About this edition
All 45 members of the Olympic Council of Asia participated in the Games, with 9,704 athletes, as well as some 4,750 team
officials, taking part in games; an increase of 184 athletes from the previous Asian Games in Doha 2006. The athletes took part
in 476 events in 42 sports, compared to the 28 events in the Olympic Games, making it the largest event in the history of the
Games. It will also be the last edition of the Games to have featured such big events as the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) have
released new hosting rules for future games beginning with the 2014 Games.
Usually China gives the world a lesson when it hosts a large sports event through its organising skills and the magnificence
of its venues, which are suitable for big events. China has surprised us with 57 huge stadia including 4 outside town. The cost of the games were on a huge level too with the total cost of staging the Asian Games and Asian Para Games being about 122.6 billion ($17 billion), with 109 billion spent on infrastructure, 6.3 billion on venues and some 7.3 billion spent on Games’ operation.

Opening and closing ceremony The opening ceremony officially began on 12th November, 2010 at 20:00 local time. For the first time in history, the ceremony was not held inside a stadium, instead it was held along the Pearl River on Haixinsha Island. The ceremony was directed by Chen Weiya, assistant director of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and featured around 6,000
performers. It was attended by the Premier of the People’s Republic of China, Wen Jiabao, President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, Chief Secretary for Administration of Hong Kong Henry Tang, as well as the President of the
Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah and President of International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge. The ceremony lasted for three hours and, together with the closing ceremony, cost about 380 million ($53 million).

Athletes were paraded by boat along the Pearl River. The ceremony featured a water themed arts show and the culture of Guangzhou. The last torchbearer, diver He Chong, lit up the cauldron after igniting the traditional Chinese firecrackers whose flares shot up the tower.
IOC President Jacques Rogge described the ceremony as “absolutely fantastic” and said Guangzhou has the ability to host the Olympics. OCA director general Husain Al-Musallam praised it as unique, fantastic and “just better than the Beijing Olympics”.
Of course, the closing ceremony was no less glamorous than the opening ceremony.

Medal table
China showed strong performances in all the games and was able to come to the front ranks with a huge score far from second place South Korea, with Japan coming third. Some countries showed their ability to compete and gave quite a show; we have witnessed countries like India, Iran and Kazakhstan gaining gold medals and coming in first places in many events in different sports. Even Arab countries proved their strong presence; we have seen many of our Arab champions go onto podiums as we are accustomed to in shooting, athletics, equestrian and football.
Kuwaiti athletes participated in the Games under the Olympic flag as the Kuwait Olympic Committee was suspended due to political
interference in January 2010.