FESPIC games open in grand Thai style
FESPIC games open in grand Thai style
BANGKOK (Agencies): Thousands of dancers, actors and singers
performed in lavish ceremonies Sunday to open a week-long
competition for 2,423 disabled athletes from 34 countries.
Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn presided over the opening of the
7th Far East and South Pacific Games for the Disabled, or FESPIC
Games.
The event comes three weeks after Thailand hosted the Asian
Games and organizers hope the FESPIC Games will be equally
successful. It is the first time they will be held in Thailand.
Thailand put its colorful traditions on display in the
ceremonies at the Thammasit Rangsit stadium, with performers of
everything from traditional ballet to Thai boxing and the village
cockfight.
Marching bands, cheer leaders and flag artists added a modern
note in scenes symbolizing friendship and unity.
Fireworks lit up the night sky. Uniformed schoolchildren -
some in wheelchairs - filled the 20,000-seat stadium, applauding
and waving colored fans to create a festive backdrop.
The athletes, whose disabilities range from amputation to
blindness to mental impairment, will compete in 15 sports for 467
gold medals. Several athletes from Cambodia have lost limbs from
mines.
The sports are athletics, wheelchair basketball, boccia,
badminton, archery, powerlifiting, goalball, swimming, wheelchair
fencing, judo, table tennis, shooting, wheelchair tennis,
volleyball and soccer.
Events are tailored to specific handicaps, such as separate
100 meter races for competitors missing legs and those who are
blind.
Thailand, the host, has fielded the largest number of athletes
at 386, followed by China's 196.
Japan hosted the first FESPIC Games in 1975 with the aim of
strengthening friendship among the disabled and promoting
rehabilitation of disabilities through sports.
The motto of this year's Games is "Equality in One World". The
FESPIC Games are held every four years between the Paralympic
Games.
Meanwhile, Thailand is hoping to make a small profit of about
US$2.9 million from last month's Asian Games, reports here said.
Preliminary figures put the event marginally in the black,
with revenues of about 2.2 billion baht ($61.1 million) and
expenses of 2.1 billion baht, according to weekend reports.
The Nation daily quoted Games budget officials as saying the
books were not yet closed but a profit was likely despite the
difficulties posed by Thailand's worst-ever economic recession.
Thailand won accolades from international sports officials for
successfully hosting the Games after years of fierce criticism
over problem-plagued preparations.