The opening of the 8th Children of Asia Games took place in a solemn atmosphere in its historical homeland - in Yakutsk. Tuymaada stadium named after. Nikolai Tarski, with a capacity of more than 12 thousand people, was full of admiring spectators and participants. Yakutsk welcomed more than three thousand guests from 25 countries: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Georgia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, North Korea, China, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Mongolia, Palestine, Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Russia , Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, Uzbekistan. Young athletes will compete for the title of the best for 13 days.
As part of the grandiose sports festival, a traditional parade of delegations of athletes and participating flags, vocal and choreographic performances took place. The main theme of the ceremony was “Journey to the Arctic Universe.” The performance, in a playful, figurative form briefly retells the story of the appearance of the white nights using motives from the legends of the Arctic peoples. One of the features of the cultural perfomance was a ball-shaped LED screen.
The flame of the 8th Children of Asia Games was lit by Georgy Balakshin, champion of the 1st Children of Asia Games in 1996, bronze medalist of the 2008 Olympic Games, six-time Russian boxing champion, three-time European champion.
The athletes were greeted by the President of the Children of Asia International Committee Vladimir Maksimov, the Head of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Aisen Nikolaev, the President of the Russian Olympic Committee Stanislav Pozdnyakov, the Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation Mikhail Degtyarev and also cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolay Chub, Alexander Grebenkin and the Kyndykan doll - a symbol of unification and preservation of the North addressed the young participants with video congratulations from the international space station.
The flag of the Children of Asia International Committee was brought in by graduates of the Children of Asia Games of different years. Among them are Tuyana Dashidorzhieva, Vasily Levit, Victoria An, Sakshi Malik, Victor Lebedev, Pannapa Kharnsujin, Yuri Krakovetsky.
The honorable right to take a solemn oath on behalf of the participants and judges of the 8th Children of Asia Games fell to Danil Kopylov, champion of the Championship of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in trap shooting and Merey Akshalov, Chief Judge of the Games, graduate of the 3rd Children of Asia Games, world and Asian champion in boxing.
Let us remind you that in total it is planned to compete for 239 sets of medals in 24 sports: athletics, basketball 3×3, dance sport “breaking” and “Ten dance”, mas-wrestling, rhythmic gymnastics, boxing, sport climbing, volleyball, mini-football, taekwondo, judo, kurash, swimming, sambo, wrestling, alysh belt wrestling, khapsagai, shooting, archery, chess, go, table tennis, kickboxing, trap shooting.
