Asian Beach Games

The 3rd Asian Beach Games featuring some 1,600 athletes kicked off on Saturday evening 16 October 2012 in East China’s coastal city of Haiyang in Shangdong Province.

A total of 49 gold medals contested in 13 sports, namely sport climbing, dragon boat, beach handball, beach soccer, beach volleyball, beach basketball, beach sepaktakraw, beach kabaddi, water skiing, beach woodball, wind surfing, roller skating and powered paragliding, with beach volleyball being the only Olympic sport.

Athletes competed from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and the others were a truly inspiring.

Qatar’s Administrative Delegation to the Games chaired  by Mr. Tareq Said Al-Ali has selected the  former Qatar’s  football star, Jaffal Rashid to act as flag lifter at the Games Opening Ceremony on Saturday.

Qatar ’s delegation to Haiyang Asian Beach Games 2012 consists of 55 persons including athletes, administrators, technical staff members and media staff

All the 45 member countries and regions under the Olympic Council of Asia participated in the six-day event.

Host China has sent a delegation of 164 athletes to the Asian Beach Games, while Thailand, another regional powerhouse on beach arena, also has sent 164 athletes to form one of the two biggest delegation in Haiyang.

The torch relay began in Jinan, capital of Shandong province, on Tuesday and moved to Yantai city on Wednesday before arriving in Haiyang Thursday.

The opening ceremony held at the 18,000-seat Heqing Stadium on Saturday evening. According to Qin Zheng, general director of the opening ceremony, the 90-minute performance were mainly feature local grassroots performers and volunteers.

The Asian Beach Games was one of the five major multi-sport games under the Olympic Council of Asia, and last year this event was supported and sponsored by Samsung, 360 degrees, Suncoo, LAX, Voltair, and NVC. The inaugural Asian Beach Games was held in Bali, Indonesia, in October 2008 while the second edition was held in Muscat, Oman, in December 2010. The next two editions after the Games in Haiyang have already been awarded to Phuket, Thailand, in 2014 and to Nha Trang, Vietnam, in 2016.