Kaohsiung Mayoress Chen: “We Were Determined To Succeed!”
Curtains went down for The World Games 2009 on July 26th. The harbor city Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan hosted 5,983 athletes, coaches and referees from 103 nations, both record high numbers in the history of The World Games. The Russian Federation ranked first by winning a total of 18 gold, 14 silver, 15 bronze; Italy ranked second with 16 gold, 12 silver and 13 bronze; followed by China with 14 gold, 10 silver and five bronze. Host Chinese Taipei had its best performance ever at The World Games, winning eight gold medals, nine silver and seven bronze, ranked seventh among 103 participating nations.
The closing ceremony of some 5,000 performers called an end to the 11-day sports event. More than 40,000 spectators waving LED (light emitting diode) devices in the eco-friendly Stadium, created a spectacular scene of “Galaxy Lights” (free news photos: www.pts.org.tw/wg2009).
International World Games Association (IWGA) President Ron Froehlich in his speech for the closing ceremony praised Kaohsiung as having done a great job in hosting the games, calling it the best ever in The World Games' history. Froehlich also thanked 4,000 volunteers involved in the games.
Mayoress Chu Chen in the after-ceremony press conference noted: “Kaohsiung showed confidence and competence in staging Taiwan’s first large-scale international sports event after numerous daunting coordination challenges. No failure would've been allowed, we were determined to succeed!” Anti-terrorism, weather and H1N1 were the most threatening factors to the Kaohsiung Organizing Committee (KOC). The Committee proved more than capable in coping with these factors.
The host broadcaster, Public Television Service (PTS) President Sylvia Feng, said: “Sports are peaceful competitions; PTS broadcasts have won compliments from IWGA and Sports Federations. The worldwide transmissions delivered the message of the Taiwanese people’s passion for sports and their international hospitality.” PTS teamed up with ESPN & STAR Sports channels, with oversea broadcastings in more than a hundred countries and distributions of over 100 million households.
The World Games 2013 will be held in Cali of Colombia, a city of 2 million inhabitants. The first time The World Games will be held in South America.
(KOC-CNA)
Contacts:
Public Television Service-Taiwan
Anthony Lin, +886-7-585-5425
Representative
wg2009@mail.pts.org.tw
www.pts.org.tw/wg2009