BEIJING - China will send 448 athletes, including 76 Paralympics champions, to the 2010 Asian Para Games which will be held in Guangzhou from Dec 12-19.

The most senior member of the squad is 49, while the youngest is 15. The average age of the squad is 23.6, as the team's management will use the event as a test for the 2012 London Paralympics.

Unlike the Chinese squad at the just-concluded Asian Games, all the athletes at the Asian Para Games are amateurs, including civil servants, soldiers, farmers, students and freelance workers.

China will take part in all 19 events on show in Guangzhou: archery, athletics, badminton, bocce, cycling, football (5-a-side), football (7-a-side), goal-ball, judo, powerlifting, rowing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, tenpin bowling, volleyball (sitting), wheelchair basketball, wheelchair fencing and wheelchair tennis.

The Guangzhou Asian Para Games mark the first legitimate Asian games for those with physical disabilities. The biggest regional event before was the Far East and South Pacific Games for the Disabled, which started in 1975. Its eighth edition was held in Kuala Lumpur four years ago.

More than 190 members of China's Guangzhou contingent participated at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, where China topped the medal tally with 211 medals, including 89 golds. The Republic of Korea was ranked second among Asian countries with 31 medals while Japan was third with 27.

China Daily

(China Daily 12/03/2010 page24)