THE ASIAN GAMES 2010

(Courtesy:Wikipedia)

The 2010 Asian Games, also known as the XVI Asiad, was a multi-sport event in Guangzhou,China that

began on 12 November and finished on 27 November 2010. Guangzhou was the second Chinese city to
host the Games, after Beijing in 1990. A total of 476 events in 42 sports was contested by athletes,
making it the largest event in the history of the Games. It was also the last iteration of the Games to have
featured such big events, as the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) have enforced new hosting rules for
future games, beginning with the 2014 Games.

Guangzhou was awarded the right to host the Games on July 1, 2004, as the sole bidding city. This came
after the withdrawal of several cities, Amman, Kuala Lumpur and Seoul. The games were co-hosted
by Dongguan, Foshan and Shanwei, the three neighbouring cities.

The opening and closing ceremonies were held along the Pearl River in Haixinsha Island, and was the
first time in history that the opening ceremony for a major sports event was not held inside a stadium. The
final medal tally was led by traditional powerhouse China, followed bySouth Korea and third place Japan.
China set a new Games record with 199 gold medals.[1]Some three World and 103 Asian records were
broken.[2] In addition, the Badminton men's singles gold medalist Lin Dan was voted as Most Valuable
Player (MVP).[3] The President of Olympic Council of Asia Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-
Sabah hailed the Games as "outstanding" and "one of the best ever".[4]