Taiwan's athletes garnered the bulk of medals awarded at the 35th International Children's Games held in Taipei, which finished yesterday.
Taiwan dominated in the pool and on the courts, with locals sweeping most of the medals in swimming, badminton, table tennis and tennis.
Taiwan athletes were also strong in track and field events, showing less depth only in the boys' 1,500m and girls' 800m running events -- the longest distances covered in the Games by boys and girls, respectively. Competitors from Alkmaar, the Netherlands took the gold in each of these competitions.
Lee I-chan (
Pan Sy-liang (
Several other Taiwanese competitors walked away with double-gold medals in the swimming pool, for winning their event and a relay.
The only team event at the Games was basketball. In the boys' division, Kaohsiung City's squad put up a good effort in their medal game against Patras, Greece.
The local team was ahead 38-33 with 30 seconds to go in the match, but Patras broke through the Kaohsiung defense to score one inside the key and a three-pointer to even the match. It then went on to win in overtime.
Girls' basketball teams from Kaohsiung City and County helped ease any loss of face for southern Taiwan by taking the gold and silver medals in the female events.
The Games, which originated in Celje, Slovenia in 1968, are rather optimistically billed as an Olympics for children, though participation by only 17 countries in this year's event somewhat reduces the impact of the Games as an international sporting event.
Nevertheless, some of the best under-15 athletes from their respective countries showed up to compete in Taipei, at the first-ever International Children's Games staged in Asia.
Taiwan fielded half of the teams participating in the Games, which included teams from 19 cities and counties and one each from the Japanese, European and American international schools. Other Asian contingents came from Japan, Mongolia and Thailand [one team per country].
Two teams came from Canada, but none from the US. Europe supplied most teams for the Games and a total of 44 teams participated.
Taiwan took part in the Games for the first time last summer in Szombatheley, Hungary and took back 14 gold medals.
Usually, the Games are held annually and host teams are decided up to five years in advance.
Taipei City Deputy Mayor Bai Hsiu-hsiung (白秀雄) accompanied the Taiwan team to Hungary last year and arranged for the competition to be held in Taipei this summer. The short notice is partially responsible for the relatively low turnout.
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