With 364 days to go until the East Asian Games open in Macau, last night's torch lighting ceremony and torch relay was the first of many pep rallies to come.
'Our venues are being completed on schedule,' said Manuel Silverio, organising committee chairman. 'The sports programme, with 11 Olympic sports, has been confirmed and its competitions carefully planned out to the highest standard required.'
After a torch lighting ceremony at A-Ma Temple, Han Jing, Macau's East Asian Games wushu gold medalist, together with Xian Dongmei, Olympic judo gold medalist from China, led hundreds of volunteers and schoolchildren in a torch relay. Han won the first-ever gold medal for Macau in the 2001 East Asian Games in Osaka.
The torch relay route was designed to trace the development of Macau's culture. A-Ma Temple was the symbolic beginning of the fishing enclave - the name 'Macau' is the Fujianese pronunciation of 'A-Ma', the goddess of the sea.
Athletes from the mainland, Taiwan, South Korea, North Korea and Hong Kong then trailed towards Lotus Square. Chinese diver Lao Lishi and Macau karate champion Lei Kuong Cheong brought the torch to this monument to the 1999 handover. Yesterday's event was also a rehearsal of traffic arrangements and crowd control plans required for next year's event.
