'Very happy. Very proud.' With this short statement, Macau athlete Pansy Cheung Pui-si summed up the feelings of everyone connected with the East Asian Games at an event to mark 30 days to the opening ceremony yesterday.
The 23-year-old karate standout received the games torch from Macau's Chief Executive, Edmund Ho Hau-wah, outside the SAR government headquarters, and ran the first leg of a relay which finished at the refurbished stadium.
Almost 10,000 students, volunteers, athletes, games staff and civic dignitaries filled the stadium to greet the final relay runner, wushu gold medal hopeful Han Jing, before the flame was put into storage ahead of the opening ceremony on October 29. Everyone then took a pledge to put all their efforts into making the fourth East Asian Games a success for Macau.
'We are all working hard, like one big team,' said Cheung. 'As one of the athletes, I am very happy that Macau can host the games, and very proud that everyone is together. We are going to face some strong competition, but the Macau people can inspire us with their support.' Cheung will be competing in her first East Asian Games, but has already represented Macau in two Asian Games, in Bangkok in 1998 and in 2002 in Pusan, South Korea, where she won bronze in the women's individual kata (forms).
'The Japanese are the strongest in karate and will be competing here, so I regard it as a big challenge. I hope I can get the silver medal,' said Cheung.
The games run from October 29 to November 6 and involve almost 2,000 athletes from nine countries and regions in 17 sports. The teams are China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia and Guam.