24th Universiade Opens In Bangkok

[george]

24th Universiade opens in Bangkok

BANGKOK: -- The 24th World University Games (WUGs), also known as the Universiade, was officially opened Wednesday evening at Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok.

His Royal Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn presided over the opening ceremony of the games as was part of Thailand's year-long celebrations for the 80th birthday of the revered monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Nearly 8,000 athletes between the ages of 17 and 28 from more than 150 countries are vying for 236 gold medals in 15 sports during August 8-18.

Hosted under the theme "All become one," the Games are being held at four main venues -- Thammasat University's Rangsit campus, the Hua Mark sports complex and Muang Thong Thani.

Thailand carried home one gold, one silver and one bronze in the last round of the games, the 2005 Games in Turkey.

As host of this year's event, Thailand is targeted to win up to 10 gold medals.

Some 390 Thai athletes are taking part in the Games. The Thai hopefuls include Olympic taekwondo bronze medallist Yaowapa Burapolchai, badminton star Boonsak Ponsana and the country's number one tennis player Danai Udomchoke.

The WUGs are held every two years under the auspices of FISU, the International University Sports Federation. The Games are the second largest global high performance multi-sports event after the Olympics and, in many sports, are of a comparable or higher standard than the Commonwealth Games.

Athletes during the 11-day event will compete in athletics, swimming, diving, water polo, basketball, fencing, soccer, gymnastics, judo, table tennis, tennis, volleyball, badminton, golf, shooting, softball and

taekwondo.

The 25th WUGs will be held in Belgrade, Serbia July 1-12, 2009 and the next Universiade is scheduled to be organised in Shenzhen, China in 2011.

--TNA 2007-08-08

[farangene]

I watched some of the opening ceremonies tonight on tv. I thought the filming of the event as each country's athletes marched into the stadiium field was horrible and not at all professional.

I also question the promoter's ability to PR such an event. I read the papers daily, read several mags, watch a bit of TV but did not see one advertisement for the games until the opening ceremony. I saw a newspaper article that the games were coming last week but didnt see anything on the location of ticket offices, prices, etc.

BTW, within 15 minutes of viewing the opening event, I saw 9 ads (some were repeat) promoting the event so suspect the coct of advertsing was not an issue.

The stands looked lke they were, at best, 50% filled. Unfortunate, what could/should be a big event for Thailand. I believe the Minister of Education was in charge of everything and think it should have been handled by a different ministy.

Edited August 8, 2007 by farangene

[sriracha john]

The website for the 24th Universiade that has the complete schedule and information is:

http://www.bangkok2007.com/en/main/index2.php

beats me why they chose a rabbit for the Games' mascot... I would have thought a Thai-related creature more suitable.... eg. a cute gecko, a cuddly python, a huggable tiger, etc.

Edited August 8, 2007 by sriracha john

[Ijustwannateach]

Look out for unbelievably-horrible Bangkok traffic for the next week or so. Also this may affect schools, as the government may decide that the poor showing in the stands requires an "invitation" (accompanied by closure of schools from on high) to all the Thai high school and university students to fill them up.