Courtesy:
Xinhua NewsHappy Sports gradually prevails among Chinese people12/5/2010HEFEI, East China, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Although the 4th All-China Games hasn't started, the idea of "Happy Sports" has already swept Hefei, the host city of the big sports event.
"Go Go Go!", "Come on!", "Defense!" Loud but young voices were heard from time to time in the futsal soccer stadium of Hefei Gymnasium.
A friendly match between Bengbu Road primary school and Hongqiao primary school was held with a few days ahead of the Games which kicks off on Sunday.
Children around 10 years old spared no efforts to show their skills on the futsal court. They were running, passing the ball, dribbling and shooting, as if they would never feel tired.
"Score!" These little futsal players hugged and cheered, their little red faces beaming with excitement.
Farinha, head coach of China's futsal national team, watched the special match. Afterwards, the Brazilian gave some simple but useful instructions to the little kids while one of his assistants showed the kids his fabulous dribbling skills, which made the kids cheer and hail.
"Soccer should bring people fun," Said Farinha. "I can see the happiness through eyes of these kids."
Getting more of China's 1.3 billion people involved in sport was one of the legacy aims of the Beijing Olympics, where China topped the medals table with 51 golds.
The All-China Games was started at this background and it is a pageant for China's non-Olympic sport events. One of the aims is to promote sport and the whole event is dubbed a "national fitness program".
Chinese sports experts claimed the development of the All-China Games showed that the Chinese people began to pay more attention to the popularity of sports and fun of sports instead of the results of competitions.
Posted by
Luca Ranocchiari -->
luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com
