Jinshan's beach volleyball tournament becomes a success
11/8/2004 14:50
This year's FIVB Women's Beach Volleyball World Tour China Jinshan Open,
which ended yesterday, attracted thousands of spectators. More than 60 teams
from 26 countries and regions took part in the event.
"Ticket sales were
beyond our expectations," said Xu Disun, director of the Jinshan Sports Bureau.
"On average, about 60 percent of each game's tickets were sold."
The district
government also organized 5,000 farmers to watch the competition.
According
to Xu, it was "the first time in history for them to experience such an
international sports event."
It is also the first time in history for
Jinshan, located at Southwest of the city, to host such an event.
Xu said he
is very proud of the organization work and said he witnessed the tournament from
the beginning to the end.
"I still remember that when officials from the
International Volleyball Federation visited Jinshan last October, the venue site
was still virgin land filled with reed marshes," he said. "They wondered whether
we would be able to set up a qualified venue to hold the match."
"We promised
that as long as they relocated the China Open to Jinshan, we would try our best
to offer the best facilities as well as the best service."
As early as
January, the sports bureau set up a team of 30 people to prepare for the
construction work.
"All the members have contributed their weekends to work
since then," he said. "They didn't even take a day off during the May Day
holiday."
Now their work has paid off and their promise has come true. In
less than four months, Jinshan people managed to establish a world-class open
stadium ideal for beach volleyball close to the sea.
The district government
spent about 38 million yuan (US$4.6 million) in building a 21,200-square-meter
manmade golden beach.
It purchased 60,000 cubic meters of sea sand from
Ningbo City in Zhejiang Province and 15,000 cubic meters of river sand from
Nantong City in Jiangsu Province, to lay the lower and upper layers
respectively.
A sight-seeing corridor was also set up along the district's
coastline.
The facilities have won high praise from FIVB officials. Blair
Harrison, FIVB technical supervisor, said that the Jinshan venue is "one of the
best in the world."
"We could not have achieved this without the help from
Jinshan people," Xu added. "They are all very supportive of the
event."
Various activities have been launched around the district before the
beach volleyball open.
In april, about 1,000 people, young and old, took part
in a bicycle relay to promote the tournament around the district.
Exhibitions
of photographs and paintings by residents to welcome the event were held in
communities and towns.
"During the tournament, more than 250 local volunteers
from universities, high schools and the army were a strong back-up troupe," he
mentioned. "We're really grateful for their excellent job."
Beach volley ball
originated in Santa Monica, the United States, in 1920 and entered the Olympics
for the first time in 1996.
However, beach volleyball is still new to many
Chinese people, who are rather curious about the sport.
"Jinshan lags behind
in sports development compared with other districts in the city," he said. "As
the first to hold the highest level beach volleyball tournament in the city, we
also want to rank the first in this sport."
The bureau will take advantage of
the venue and is ready to launch courses on beach volleyball in the district's
youth sports school.
"People around the world have learned to know more about
Jinshan from the tournament, which is great help in lifting the district's image
and attracting future investment," he said. "We hope that we could continue to
hold the event, for at least three times, in the next few years."
Michelle zhang
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