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Asian Para Games: Athletes from 42 countries seek to tame Chinese dragon
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Rise up: An athlete who will compete in the athletics event of the 2018 Asian Para Games practices the long jump. (-/Maksum Nur Fauzan)
Defending champion China is without a doubt the country to beat at the 2018 Asian Para Games, which open in Jakarta on Saturday.
The other 42 participating countries will go all-out and look for any opportunity to tame China, which bagged a total of 67 gold medals in the 2014 Incheon Asian Para Games.
The third Asian Para Games will feature 512 events in 18 sports. Sixteen events, however, are not medal events because of the limited number of participants. An event is considered a medal event if it is contested by at least four athletes from two countries.
Japan is sending the biggest contingent with 303 athletes, followed by Indonesia with 295 and Thailand with 237. China will only deploy 232 athletes to Jakarta.
Despite being less powerful in number, China’s strength is well spread across some of the favorite sports, including athletics, swimming and shooting.
With a world champion in its squad, China was considered the favorite team to come out on top in the shooting competition this year, said Indonesian shooter Heru Zainudin.
He was referring to Lou Xiaolong, who won the world champion title at the 2018 Al Ain World Shooting Para Sport World Cup after booking 581 points in six rounds.
“China will be our strongest competitor in the shooting competition,” said Heru as quoted by the Indonesian Asian Para Games Organizing Committee’s (INAPGOC) website, asianparagames2018.id, on Friday.
At the 2018 Para Games, Lou Xiaolong is expected to compete in the 10-meter, 25-m and 50-m categories.
At the 2014 Games in Incheon, China was also dominant in athletics, where it collected no fewer than 15 golds, 14 silvers and 11 bronzes.
In swimming, fierce competition is expected between China and South Korea in the men’s event, with swimmers from Japan, Hong Kong and Uzbekistan all looking to make a splash in the pool, according to the Asian Paralympic Committee.
For China, all eyes will be on multiple record holders Yang Yang and Zhao Liankang ( S2 ), Li Junsheng ( S5 ), Huang Xianquan and world champion Xu Haijiao, who will be expected to take the top positions in S8 events.
On the opening day, the Para Games will see competitions in badminton, table tennis and wheelchair basketball.
In badminton, Team Indonesia is led by world number one pair Hari Sutanto and Ukun Rukaendi in men’s doubles SL3 and SL4.
Incheon Para Games gold medalist Hari said he would compete in men’s doubles, mixed doubles and the team competition.
“We’ve been training for 10 months at the National Paralympic Committee training center in Surakarta [Central Java],” said Hari, who has set his sights on gold in the aforementioned contests. “China and South Korea will be our strongest opponents.”
The organizers said tickets for matches are still available for purchase online at asianparagames2018.loket.com, while official merchandise goods will go on sale beginning Saturday.
