At 9:20 pm, April 29 in Beijing time, the Olympic torch relay ended in Ho Chi Minh cIty, Vietnam which is the last set of the international torch relay outside China. In Ho Chi Minh city, the torch relay began at the opera house in the center of the city and ended in the Seventh Military Zone Sports Stadium with a length of 13 kilometers. During the whole event, smiles, cheers, applauses and flages can be seen everywhere there. On April 30, the torch will arrive in Hongkong, the first set in China and the relay will begin on May 2.    

    From the very beginning of the torch relay, problems appeared one after another. Tibet problem and the boycott bring disappointment  and unhappiness to the torch relay. Some western countries who seemingly to be friendly before, really hurt our hearts this time. Even though, we smile to them and welcome them to Beijing. We will show them the manner of a country who has more 5000 years’ civilization. I want to say in the last blog of this semaster that almost every country has met the problem similar to that between Tibet and China—a part of one country wants to gain independence illegally under the control of some ambitious ones. Please to recall what you did when the same thing happened in your country. Did you say “yes, they should be free” willingly and happily? If you did not, please do not interfere the affairs of other countries under the name of “protecting human rights”. We are very grateful that you care us so much, but like all of you, we also need some private and free space to decide our own domestic affairs. So give us that space and let’s be together harmoniously.

http://torchrelay.beijing2008.cn/en/journey/hochiminhcity/news/n214330420.shtml

The Badminton Swiss Open ended on March 16, 2008. Chinese athletes’ result in this competition is encouraging. On March 16, Lin Dan beat Li Zongwei from Malaysia winning the gold medal in men’s singles. Xie Xingfang became the champion of women’s singles and Chinese athletes also won in women’s doubles and mixed doubles. Lin Dan and Xie Xingfang are lovers and they both gained the gold medal in singles. How romantic and legendary it is! Xie Xingfang has had a bad time in Britain Open and was disqualified in the first round. The Swiss Open then is no doubt her first step to recover from the failure.

http://www.swissopen.com/index.php?id=1&L=1

The 12th IAAF World Indoor Championships were held from March 7 to 9 in Valencia Spain. Chines athlete LiuXiang won men’s 60m hurdles with 7.46 seconds on March 8. Allen Johnson from United States finished the second with 7.55 seconds. LiuXiang is the world record holder in the outdoor 110 meter hurdles. His best result in the indoor hurdles is 7.42 seconds. Although he did not break his own best result, his wonderful performance is a good prediction to the 2008 Olympic Games. His coach Sun Haiping said: “The reason why LiuXiang won the competition is that he has advantage in constitution and stable performance.” When the Championships ended on March 9, United States ranked first in the medal list with five golds, five silvers and three bronzes.

http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/sports/headlines/athletics/n214264161.shtml

On March 2nd, the final of men’s team in 49th World Table Tennis Championships started between China and the Republic of Korea. Chinese athletes won the competition at 3 to 0 and got the Swaythling Cup. This is the fourth time for the Chinese athletes to defend their championship and the 16th Swaythling Cup. The veterans performed stably in this competition, Ma Lin, Wang Hao and Wang Liqing beat the opponents with 3 to 1, 3 to 1 and 3 to 0. After the first three rounds, the result was clear. China won the championship with big advantage.

http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/sports/headlines/tabletennis/n214260345.shtml

The 12th IAAF World Indoor Championships will be held from March 7 to March 9 in Valencia, Spain. Liu Xiang is under everyone’s attention again, but his coach said that he was not concerned about Liu’s performance at the World Indoor Championships. He said:” Training is like a spring, which can not be given too much strain.” These Championships are one of the biggest world events before the 2008 Olympic Games and the result of these can help us predict the result of 2008 in some aspects. But it seems that Liu and his coach are not as worried as us. They said the most important thing for this competition is to make preparation for the Olympic Games and Liu will compete with himself before that. I will keep an eye on the result of it.

http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/sports/headlines/athletics/n214256956.shtml

  Youth Olympic Games—— another new event credited to use “Olympic” after the Summer Olympic Games，the  Winter Olympic Games and the Special Olympics. You must feel confused. What is the Youth Olympic Games? It is another event created by the IOC in July 2007 to inspire the young to take part in the sports competition, to live a healthy life and to be far away from doping. Any child from 14 to 18 can participate in the Youth Olympic Game. The Youth Olympic Games will take place every four years. Like the Olympic Games, there are Summer Youth Olympic Games and Winter Youth Olympic Games. The first Youth Olympic Games will be held in 2010 and the first Winter Youth Olympic Games will be held in 2012. Nine cities have applied to host the 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games. Moscow and Singapore have been chosen as the finalists. Which city will win the host right will be announced on February 21,2008 by IOC President Jacques Rogge. The biding process for the first Winter Youth Olympic Games is undergoing too.

http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/official/ioc/n214250886.shtml

From February 9 to 17,2008, the Proximus Diamond Games are held in Antwerp, Belgium. The organizer hopes to sell about 100,000 tickets. The Proximus Diamond Games are broadcasted by more than six countries and the potential viewers will amount to 636 million. In the quarterfinals held on February 15, the Chinese athlete Na Li defeated Sofia Arvidsson by 7 to 5 and 6 to 4. 

Na Li and her teammate Ting Li were the first couple to win the champion of WTA tournament.  Tennis was always dominated by the western athletes. But as China develops gradually, Chinese athletes begin to get better result in more and more fields, such as long distance run, fencing and hurdle. This does not only show China’s progress in  sports, but also shows her progress in the comprehensive national strength.

http://www.sport.be/proximusdiamondgames/2008/eng/nieuws/

——Water Cube

  On February the 19th, the Sixteenth Diving World Cup will open in Water Cube—the National Aquatics Center. This time the World Cup will catch the eye of the world. From one part it because the FINA World Cup is the third largest diving event only to the Olympics and FINA World Championships. From the other part this because the Water Cube was just completed. Water Cube is one of the major venues in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Its beautiful shape and the advanced science and technology have become one of the world miracles. In total 310 athletes, 218 coaches and 42 international judges from 54 countries will participate in this event. 

  One of my classmates will be working as the volunteer there during the competiton. How lucky he is. Water Cub is the venue I want to go to most. If I can go there, I will be immensely joyful.

http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/sports/headlines/diving/n214250597.shtml

    On January 20th the clothing designs of the 29th Olympic Games were unveiled. Today is the 200-day countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. There are three kind of color, blue, red and gray. The blue one is for the volunteers of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The red one is for the BOCOG staff and the gray one is for the technical officials. Each one will get two suits of T-shirts, coats, trousers and hats, one bag and one pitcher. The uniforms feature “lucky clouds”. 

    From these preparations made by the BOC, we can see that China have made great effort to make sure that everything goes on well and to provide good conditions for everyone coming to Beijing.

http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/official/preparation/uniforms/n214235666.shtml