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First mainland team in Taiwan for World Games

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-07-17 13:21

KAOHSIUNG: The first competition group from the Chinese mainland -- a 10-member climbing team -- arrived at the Kaohsiung airport in Taiwan at 11:20 pm Thursday for the 11-day World Games.

Balloons are set off while performers take part in the Main Stadium during the opening ceremony of the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung July 16, 2009. [Agencies]

"After the training, currently all our athletes are in very good condition, and we have the confidence to achieve good results," said Li Zhixin, leader of the climbing team, upon arrival.

The team flew from Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province and stopped over at Hong Kong before arriving in the island.

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"I have no pressure at all," He Cuilian, who set the world record of 5.31 seconds in women's 10 meter speed climbing in the 2009 World Climbing Championship held in Xining, northwest China's Qinghai Province in early July.

The mainland will send a total of nine teams to participate in climbing, gymnastics, boules, fin swimming among others. The other eight teams will arrive here in the following days.

It is the first world-level sports event held in Taiwan. A total of 4,800 athletes and officers from 105 countries and regions will take part in the games.

The World Games were first held in 1981 with the aim to promote the development of non-Olympic sports across the world.

The quadrennial event is scheduled to be held one year after every Olympics. The 2005 Games were held in Duisburg, Germany.

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