Croatia’s Giovanni Cernogoraz pockets the Trap Men Gold, the last medal of the ISSF World Cup Final in Nicosia

With the Trap Men title awarded to the 32-year old from Novigrad (CRO), the ISSF World Cup Final in Shotgun events goes in the books. Great Britain claimed the 1st place of the medal standings, where also Italy, San Marino and Croatia recorded at least 1 Gold medal.

Today’s Trap Men event closed the ISSF World Cup Final in Shotgun events, the final competition of the 2015 ISSF season, held at the Nicosia Olympic Shooting Center in Latsia (CYP) since October 15th.

The reigning Olympic Gold medallist in this event, Croatia’s Giovanni Cernogoraz, finally pocketed the 1st place, after his previous best result was a 6th place in Maribor (SLO) in 2012.

The 32-year old from Novigrad faced 45-year old Italian shooter Giovanni Pellielo in the Gold medal match, after they both concluded the semifinal round with the best score: 14 hits. In the medal match, they both missed one targets in their first two series, but as Pellielo missed again in his third one, Cernogoraz shuttered all of his last nine clays, topping the two-time Olympic Silver medallist and claiming what for him is the first Gold of the 2015 ISSF season.

“The six semifinalists were all very good shooters. So the level of the competition has been very high since the very first moment. I gave everything I had and it ended well.” Said Cernogoraz at the end of the match.

Then, he talked about his program in the following months. “This was my last competition for this year, I’m going to take a month off now and in December and January I will start with an intensive athletic training. In the end of January, then, I will go back to shooting again.” He concluded.

After placing 2nd at the 2015 ISSF World Championship in Lonato (ITA), Pellielo just finished one hit shy of the 1st place also here at the Nicosia Olympic Shooting Center. Anyway, he was pretty satisfied with his performance. “If this is the defeat, I’m ok with that. We are the best Trap shooters in the world, and it’s nice to find myself always battling with these guys.”

In the other medal match, more than two finals was required to determine the Bronze medallist, as Alexey Alipov and Massimo Fabbrizi concluded the regular round with 15 hits out of 15 targets. In the following shoot-off, Fabbrizi missed first, but only on his 23rd clay. Eliminated after the 15 semifinals targets, Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Erik Varga placed respectively 5th and 6th with 12 hits each.

With the five Shotgun globes awarded, Great Britain maintained the top of the medal standings it claimed after the first day of competitions, when Amber Hill and Steven Scott won the Gold medal in the Skeet Women and in the Double Trap Men event, respectively.

Croatia’s Giovanni Cernogoraz pockets the Trap Men Gold, the last medal of the ISSF World Cup Final in Nicosia

The three remaining Gold medals were awarded to Italy’s Gabriele Rossetti in the Skeet Men event, to San Marino’s Alessandra Perilli in the Trap Women one, and to Croatia’s Giovanni Cernogoraz in the Trap Men event.

Italy also received a Silver medal thanks to Giovanni Pellielo, who finished 2nd in the Trap Men final, while the United States of America failed to reach the highest step of the podium, concluding with just 1 Silver and 1 Bronze, signed by Vincent Hancock and Morgan Craft.

The People’s Republic of China, Slovakia and Thailand all won 1 Silver medal each, while the other four Bronze medals was awarded to Denmark, Spain, India and Russia.

For a detailed wrap-up of the competition with tables and medallists, please visit: http://www.issf-sports.org/news.ashx?newsid=2436.

Usa’s Craft Beats Teammate Connor To Win Skeet World Title And A Spot In The US Olympic Team

The US shooting team celebrated two individual medals (Gold and Silver) and a teams’ Gold medal at yesterday’s Skeet Women event, during the ISSF Shotgun World Championship held in Lonato (ITA). Three more medals came at the Junior event: individual Silver and Bronze, and teams’ Gold.

USA’s Morgan Craft (22) became the new Skeet Women world champion, today, at the 2015 ISSF Shotgun World Championship in Lonato, Italy.

The American shooter defeated her teammate Caitlin Connor (24) in the Gold medal match by 15 to 13 hits, finishing atop of the world championship podium for the first time in her career.

The duel between the two teammates involved more than just the world title. In a competition within the competition, Craft gained a spot in the Rio 2016 US Olympic team by finishing ahead of Connor. The second member of the US Olympic women’s Skeet team will be selected at the USA Shooting Fall and Spring Selection Matches (2 October 2015, 2 May 2016).

The two American shooters had qualified for the final phases of the competition with 73 hits, and then tied again atop of the semi-final leaderboard with 15 hits each. But before advancing to the Gold medal match, they had to beat China’s Wei Ning in a shoot-off (Wei had also scored 15 targets in the semi-final).

“Eight years ago I never thought I would be at this spot. This is what I worked for, what I believed I can do, for the last couple of years. I’m exactly where I want to be now, I just achieved my lifetime goal!” Craft said. She had won silver at the last world cup stage of the year in Gabala, last August, climbing the world raking up to the second place, and today’s victory will certainly place her atop of the ranking.

USA’s Morgan Craft,

“It definitely wasn’t easy, today. We had some crazy wind and torrential downpours this afternoon, but I did my best and got through it just fine. I was extremely happy with my results.”

“I love Caitlin and I’m so happy that we got Gold and Silver. I couldn’t be happier to share the podium with my teammate.” she added.

“I’m a little disappointed just because we were also shooting for a spot at the Olympics, but I think my shooting was really good.” Said silver medallist Connor. “I shot really well today and it’s a plus going into the next year.

The two-time Olympic Silver medallist Wei Ning of the People’s Republic’s of China (33), ended up on the third step of the podium, as she beat Thailand’s Sutia Jiewchaloemmit (29) in the Bronze medal match.

The two Rio 2016 Olympic quota places to be awarded today went to Libuse Jahodova of the Czech Republic (8th with 71+5 hits) and to Cyprus’ Andri Eleftheriou (10th with 71+1 hits).

The United States of America collected another medal by finishing atop of the teams’ podium with an equalled world record of 215 clays scored by Craft, Connor and their teammate Kimberly Rhode. Italy (Katiuscia Spada, Diana Bacosi, Chiara Cainero) followed in second place with 212 hits, while bronze went to the People’s Republic of China with 209 hits (Wei Ning, Wei Meng, Piao Piao Lin).

At the women’s junior Skeet event, it was China’s Che Yufei who won Gold, beating USA’s Sydney Carson in a shoot-off by 4 to 3 hits. The two athletes had tied atop of the gold medal match’s scoreboard with 11 hits. The second US finalist, Dania Jo Vizzi, took Bronze beating Italy’s Francesca Del Prete by 14 to 9 hits. The excellent results of Carson and Vizzi, and of their teammate Monika Katharina Jacob (6th place in the individual competition), lifted USA atop of the junior teams’ podium with an overall score of 206 targets. The Russian Federation junior team followed in second with 192 targets scored by Alina Fazylzyanova, Victoria Ostapets and Ekaterina Filimonova, while the teams’ bronze went to Italy (Francesca Del Prete, Chiara Di Marziantonio, Francesca Grieco) with 190 hits.

The ISSF Shotgun World Championship in Lonato (ITA), where 800 athletes from 92 countries are competing in the five Olympic shotgun shooting events from the 10th through the 18th of September, will continue today with the men’s Double Trap and the men’s junior Double Trap finals, scheduled at 16.30 and 17.30 (GMT+2) respectively.

All finals will be broadcasted live on http://www.issf-sports.org and on the Eurovision network.

Jamaica’s Trelawny Stadium To Be Named After Usain Bolt

The Trelawny Stadium is to be named after Jamaican World Sprint Champion Usain Bolt.

Natalie Neita-Headley Jamaica’s Sports Minister revealed this to journalist during a press briefing, earlier today. But this will not be done until financing is available to build a track at the Stadium.

Usain Bolt
photo credit: Neil
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode

The Trelawny Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Trelawny, Jamaica which was constructed with financial support from the Peoples Republic of China in 2007, and the stadium hosted the opening ceremony of the 2007 Cricket World Cup and it was also used for a couple of warm up matches.

The Trelawny Stadium as also hosted a few football matches and this must be a huge honour for a great athlete like Usain Bolt.

Trelawny multi purpose stadium. photo credit complant.com

ISSF World Cup in Gabala (AZE): Day-5 Wrap Up

The Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China celebrated two gold medals, today, at the ISSF World Cup in Gabala (AZE), where more than 1100 athletes from 90 countries are competing in Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun events from the 7th through the 15th of August, chasing world cup final points and 34 Rio 2016 Olympic quota places.

Day-5 of the ISSF World Cup in Gabala started off with the victory of Russia’s first-time finalist Kirilll Grigoryan (23), who claimed the men’s 50m Rifle Prone gold medal. In spite of being the youngest and the lowest ranked finalists (62nd in the world), Grigoryan shot a great match, moving atop of the scoreboard since the first series.

The Russian athlete duelled neck and neck against the 2004 Olympic Champion Matthew Emmons of USA (34) – currently ranked fourth in the world in this event – right to the last shot.

Closing his match with a strong 10.5, Grigoryan moved atop of the podium with a final score of 209.3 points, leaving Emmons in second with 208.4 points. Following them, the Czech Republic’s two-time Olympian Tomas Jerabek (42) secured Bronze with 186.6 points, and claimed the first of the two Rio 2016 Olympic quota places up for grabs. The 2000 Olympic Silver medallist Torben Grimmel of Denmark (39) grabbed the second Olympic quota, as he finished in fourth place with 165.8 points leaving Norway’s Ole Kristian Bryhn (26) behind him, in fifth place, with 144.9 points.

“I feel really great because this is my first final and my first medal in a world cup stage, it couldn’t end up in a better way.” Grigoryan said after the match. “I was not stressed too much by the fact that I was competing shoulder and shoulder with an Olympic Champion. We’re all humans, we can all win or lose a match,” he added. “My parents were both professional shooters of the Soviet Union team.” Grigoryan said, explaining how he got into the sport. “Shooting sport is a family thing. My dream is off course to participate in the Olympic Games. I shoot all rifle events, but the 50m Prone is definitely my favourite.”

In the men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol, Hu Haozhe and Lao Jiajie ruled the game. They won, respectively, gold and silver medals; both also gained Olympic quota places for Rio 2016. Hu (27) and Lao (25) were tied in first until the final shot. Then, a perfect 5-hit round gave Hu the first World Cup gold in his career woth a final score of 32 hits. Lao, the silver medalist, scored 30 hits and stepped for the first time onto a World Cup podium. France’s Boris Artaud (25) won the bronze, his career’s first World Cup medal, with a score of 25 hits.

“I thank the ISSF, and the Azerbaijani Organizing Committee,” siad Hu, “for preparing such a good competition for the athletes.” In his last three rounds, Hu didn’t miss a single shot, as he scored 15 hits out of 15 targets. He did it, he said, by playing the way he knows. “I was just doing my thing,” he explained. “I think less, and do more.”

Tomorrow, August 13th, the women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions and the men’s 10m Air Pistol finals are scheduled at 11:00 and at 15:30, respectively. The medal matches will be broadcasted live on http://www.issf-sports.org

China Earns Two More Golds And USA’s 2008 Olympic Champ Eller Comes Back Atop Of The Podium At The ISSF World Cup In Gabala

Three events were contested at the ISSF World Cup in Azerbaijan, today. Mai and Cao of the People’s Republic of China won the 50m Pistol Men and the 25m Pistol Women events. USA’s Walton Eller came back atop of an ISSF podium two years after his last victory, at the 2013 World Championship.

Day-4 of the ISSF Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun World Cup in Gabala, Azerbaijan, saw the Chinese flag risen twice atop of the podium at the men’s 50m Pistol and at the women’s 25m Pistol finals, and the victory of USA’s 2008 Olympic Champion Walton Eller at the men’s Double Trap.

Hancock wins Skeet final and makes it to the US team for Rio 2016

The competition day was opened by the 50m Pistol Men event, won by the 2013 Asian Champion Mai Jiajie (27), from the People’s Republic of China. Mai, who had never won a world cup stage before, scored 565 points during the qualifications, and then marked 194.7 points in the final to finish atop of the podium. The Chinese athlete won with over 3 points of advantage on Daehun Park of the Republic of Korea (20) – ranked 10th in the world – who collected today’s silver with 191.4 points after qualifying for the final match with 567 points. The Republic of Korea celebrated twice, today, as their second finalist, Kim Cheongyong (18), made it to the third step of podium, collecting his first international medal ever with 169.9 points (and 563 qualification points). Rio 2016 Quota places went to Spain’s Pablo Carrera (29), who finished in fifth with 128.5 points, and to India’s Prakash Nanjappa (39), 8th with 70.1 points.

At the following 25m Pistol Women event, the 18-year old Chinese finalist Cao Lijia beat Russia’s Vitalina Batsarashkina (18) with a net score of 7 to 1 points in the gold medal match, after passing through the semi-final with 18 hits. “This is a great birthday present. I turned 18 just one month ago, and this medal is the best thing that could happen to me,” Cao said. “I am really happy about this gold, it’s my first international victory, and I hope I will get many more in the future. I would like to thank my coach and my team, without them this would not have happened.”

Silver medallist Vitalina Batsarashkina (semi-final: 20 hits, final: 1 point) earned a Rio 2016 Quota place, as the People’s Republic of China had already achieved the maximum number of quotas allowed per country in this event. Cao’s teammate Zhang Jingjing (26) – the reigning world champion – claimed today’s bronze as she beat London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Olena Kostevych of Ukraine (30) by 7 to 3 points. The second Olympic quota up for grabs went to Mongolia’s 2013 Asian Champion Munkhzul Tsogbadrakh, who placed in 6th with 13 hits.

The 2008 Olympic champion Walton Eller (33) finished atop of the podium at the men’s Double Trap event, beating Great Britain’s Steven Scott (30) by 30 to 26 targets in the gold medal match. Scott, the silver medalist, gained an Olympic quota place for his country. The event’s second ticket to Rio went to Germany’s Michael Goldbrunner (29), who lost to Russia’s Vasily Mosin (43) in the bronze medal match.

It took a long time before getting to the medal matches. At the end of the semi-final, five athletes were tied in second place with 29 targets: India’s Asab Mohd (27), China’s Hu Binyuan (37), plus Eller, Goldbrunner, and Mosin. Hu was the first to leave the shoot-off, taking 6th place after missing just one target in the semi-final’s first 15 doubles.

China earns two more golds and USA’s 2008 Olympic Champ Eller comes back atop of the podium at the ISSF World Cup in Gabala

Then the shoot-off split in two: Eller and Goldbrunner fought to enter the gold medal match; Mosin and Mohd, for the bronze medal match. Mosin beat Mohd in the shoot-off (20-19), and Goldbrunner in the bronze medal match (30-29), securing the third spot. Eller beat Goldbrunner (4-3) to join Scott in the gold medal match.Scott, who had hit all of his 30 targets in the semifinal, then missed four and lost to Eller.

“I feel really good,” said Eller. “It’s been a while since I’ve been up on the top of the podium, so it’s nice to be back.” Winning a gold for the first time in the last two years, Eller feels now more optimistic about the Olympics. “Yeah,” Eller explained, “it puts me in a great spot for Rio. Hopefully I can just keep doing what I’m doing. I knew I had the ability to win a gold. I’ve been shooting really great scores in the last two to three years. It’s just that sometimes it’s tough: you got a lot of great competitors out here. They train just as hard as we do. Well, It’s nice to be on top.”

The 2015 ISSF World Cup in Gabala will continue tomorrow with the men’s 50m Rifle Prone and 25m Rapid Fire Pistol events. Finals are scheduled at 10.00 and 14.30 (GMT+5), and will be broadcasted live on http://www.issf-sports.org

Italy’s Bacosi Wins The First Gold Of The ISSF Shotgun World Cup In Larnaca

The Skeet Women event opened the 2015 ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Larnaca. Italy’s Diana Bacosi won her second world cup Gold in a row, leaving China’s Yu in second place.

The third Shotgun stage of this year’s ISSF World Cup Series has been officially opened in Larnaca, Cyprus, yesterday evening. The competition will run from the 26th of April right through the 3rd of May, and will be held at the Larnaca Olympic Shooting Range.

490 athletes coming from 77 countries are participating in the stage, competing in the five Olympic events of Trap, Double Trap and Skeet shotgun shooting.

The best shooters of the world arrived here in Cyprus, as ten Olympic Quota Places – the qualification slots for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro – are up for grabs at the competition.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, the ISSF President Olegario Vazquez Raña said: “Dear shooters, officials and coaches, dear friends: welcome to the ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Larnaca. I am very happy to be in this beautiful island. I would like to thank the Organizing Committee for their excellent work in the preparation of this event, we are very happy to hear that athletes from 77 countries and five continents arrived here in Cyprus to participate in the third shotgun stage of this year’s ISSF World Cup Series.”

Gold medalist Diana BACOSI of Italy competes in the Skeet Women Finals at the Larnaca Olympic Shooting Range during Day 1 of the ISSF World Cup Shotgun on April 26, 2015 in Larnaca, Cyprus. (Photo by Nicolo Zangirolami)

Italy’s Diana Bacosi won today’s Skeet Women final, Larnaca’s opening event.

The 31-year old athlete qualified for the final match with 72 hits, and then cleared the semi-final with a perfect score of 16 hits out of 16 targets. Advancing to the Gold medal match, Bacosi met and beat China’s Yu Xiumin with a score of 15 to 13 clays, missing only one target on her last station throughout the whole round.

Bacosi had already stepped atop of the ISSF world cup podium at the second world cup stage of the year in Al Ain (UAE), last March. The Italian athlete, ranked second in the world, had grabbed a Rio 2016 Olympic Quota place there, qualifying for the next Games.

“It feels great to win my second world cup Gold back to back,” said Bacosi. “It gives me a lot of self confidence in the lead up to the European Games and to the ISSF World Championship.”

“This range is beautiful, it’s the perfect place to shoot a world cup,” she continued. “But the wind can be challenging here, it hasn’t been easy to pass through the qualifications. I gave my best in the semi-final, when the wind slowed down, and I finally made it.”

The women’s Skeet Silver medal went to Yu Xiumin of the People’s Republic of China (32), while it was USA’s Morgan Craft (21) who won the Bronze medal beating the 2008 Olympic finalist Sutiya Jiewchaloemmit of Thailand (28) in the Bronze medal match with a score of 15 to 13 hits, pocketing her very first ISSF world cup medal.

(L-R) Silver medalist Xiumin YU of the Peoples Republic of China, Gold medalist Diana BACOSI of Italy and Bronze medalist Morgan CRAFT of the United States of America pose with their medals after the Skeet Women Finals at the Larnaca Olympic Shooting Range during Day 1 of the ISSF World Cup Shotgun on April 26, 2015 in Larnaca, Cyprus. (Photo by Nicolo Zangirolami)

The two Rio 2016 Olympic Quota places up for grabs at today’s final went to Yu and Jiewchaloemmit, as Bacosi had already won one in Al Ain and USA has already achieved the maximum number of qualification spots in this event (2 quotas).

The next medals will be awarded tomorrow afternoon, at the Skeet Men final, scheduled to take place on the 27th of April at 17.30 (Cyprus time, EEST). The match will be broadcasted live on http://www.issf-sports.org

Usa’s Olympic Champ Hancock Scores A Perfect Match To Close The First ISSF World Cup Of The Season

More than 300 athletes from 54 countries competed in the first ISSF World Cup Stage of the season. USA finished atop of the medal standings. Rio 2016 Olympic Quotas went to USA, Italy, Australia and the People’s Republic of China.

ISSF – INTERNATIONAL SHOOTING SPORT FEDERATION

Today’s Skeet Men Finals concluded the 2015 ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Acapulco, Mexico, the first step of this year’s ISSF World Cup Series. More than 300 athletes coming from 54 countries competed there from the 2nd through the 9th of March, trying to secure one of the 10 Rio 2016 Olympic Quota Places distributed by the ISSF.

It was USA’s Vincent Hancock, a two-time Olympic Champion, who won the last match, the Skeet Men Finals, today. And he did it in the best possible way: shuttering all targets in the qualifications (when he equalled the world record of 125 hits), then in the semi-final and finally in the Gold medal match, leaving no chances to his opponents.

“It’s exactly what I wanted.” Hancock said, displaying self confidence after hitting 157 targets straight without a single miss. “This Wolrd Cup was the first stepping stone to get to the next Olympic Gold medal.”

The United States of America dominated the first ISSF World Cup Stage of the year, finishing atop of the Medal Standings with 4 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze medals out of 5 events.

Ten Olympic Quota Places, the qualification slots for Rio 2016, were assigned by the ISSF. The US and the Italian teams collected 3 quotas spots each, while Australia and the People’s Republic of China pocketed two each.

Vincent Hancock, Photo by Tim Hipps, FMWRC Public Affairs
https://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/2799805285/in/photolist-cJbcim-8mpnm4-cHCUZw-8mLbYA-5gpJyV-8mL7Uf-kn2tjV-d8Pq35-d8Ppy3-fszWy-5gu5EJ-5e7Xm8-bV2gBi-ccowrQ-8mLaxJ-4Y6for-dauRQm-cVtBYW-c37BnE-cVtC5b-cVtCfC-c37Bkh-c37Z6f-cVtCc5-c37Bgy-7Tx3yN-cH8hEb-9ZsjHt-cHbs89-ietpvH-fQtemN-cJLLgG-jNn5BB-c6TF2f-cKaxxs-hZ7qHj-8gDbGQ-joR8y6-j2KLC4-i9RgRb-iBTaBU-cHbs9U-cJkMzS-cHCDyN-cH63fb-cH7gnG-cH6g1b-cH7eDU-cH69U9-cH65sA

“It has been a wonderful competition!” The ISSF President, Olegario Vazquez Raña said, at the end of the last event. “We have to thank the Organizing Committee of this event and its President Jorge Peña Soberanis for making it possible. Acapulco’s shooting range has been renewed for this event and everything run perfectly, as the today’s high scores have proved.”

The ISSF Secretary General Franz Schreiber said: “The results have been tremendous, and the atmosphere here in Acapulco has been great. We are very happy to see that the changes in the finals’ formats that we’ve introduced after London 2012 are working well and improved the presentation of our sport.”

The ISSF World Cup Series moves now on to Al Ain (UAE), where the second ISSF Shotgun World Cup Stage of the season will be held starting form the 19th of March. The first medal match, the Trap Women Finals, will take place on the 21st of March.

Follow the next events live at http://www.issf-sports.org.

Death of Zhenliang He, IOC Honorary Member

It is with great sadness that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has learnt of the death of Zhenliang He, IOC Honorary Member in the People’s Republic of China, aged 85.

A career politician, Mr He was instrumental in bringing China back into the Olympic Movement. He was elected as an IOC Member in 1981, serving in the role until 2010, when he became IOC Honorary Member. He sat on the IOC Executive Board three times (1985-1989, 1994-1998 and 1999-2003) and served as an IOC Vice-President from 1989 to 1993.

Mr He is credited with helping Beijing win the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games and to open up China to the world.

He was a firm believer in sport’s ability to educate, and long championed the teaching of the Olympic values as well as sport in school curricula.

“Mr He was a man of culture and art. He was a true advocate of the social values of sport and of our Movement and I would like to pay tribute to the passion and energy he deployed over the years to fulfil his mission as an IOC Member in China. He also helped our Movement better understand his country, its people and outstanding culture. The Olympic Movement has lost one of its most fervent ambassadors,” said IOC President Thomas Bach.

Zhenliang He

“For me personally he showed me true friendship and gave me invaluable advice from my very early days as an IOC member. I will always remember this with great gratitude,” the President added.

During his three decades working for the Olympic Movement, Mr He was Chairman of the Cultural Commission (1995-1999), Chairman (2000-2009) and then Honorary Member (2009-2015) of the Commission for Culture and Olympic Education, and Vice-Chairman of the Sport for All Commission (1985-1987). He was also a Member of the following Commissions:

Olympic Solidarity (1981-1987)
Olympic Movement (1985-1999)
Apartheid and Olympism (1989-1992)
Council of the Olympic Order (1989-1993)
Preparation of the XII Olympic Congress (1990-1993)
Study of the Centennial Olympic Congress – Congress of Unity (1994-1996)
“IOC 2000” (1999)
“IOC 2000” Reform Follow-up (2002)
2009 Congress (2006-2009)

In 1964, he became the Deputy Secretary General of the Chinese Gymnastics Association, and later served as the Secretary General of the Chinese Table Tennis Association and the head of the secretariat of the All-China Sports Federation. In 1979, he was promoted to the position of Deputy Secretary General of the All-China Sports Federation and the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC). He served as the Secretary General of COC between 1982 and 1986, Vice-President between 1986 and 1989, and President between 1989 and 1994.

A keen sportsman, Mr He enjoyed swimming, playing table tennis, tennis, football, basketball and golf.

The IOC expresses its deepest sympathies to Zhenliang He’s family. The IOC President has asked for the Olympic flag to be flown half-mast for three days in tribute to a great Olympic personality.

A Social Start To The Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games

NANJING, Aug. 16, 2014 (Xinhua) — Artists perform during the Opening Ceremony of the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province. (Xinhua:Fei Maohua)(lyq)

The 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games got under way today in Nanjing, China with a pulsating Opening Ceremony that quickly spread around the world thanks to thousands of selfies taken by athletes and spectators at the request of International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach.

In the true spirit of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) the IOC reached out to its 42 million fans as well as the followers of the spectators and athletes in the stadium. IOC President Thomas Bach spoke directly to the 3,800 young athletes taking part in the Games at the Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre to encourage them to share the moment.

“Dear young athletes, these are your Games. This is your moment. So, young athletes, please join me: Let us all capture it – so get your smart phones out and let’s set a record for selfies,” President Bach said, before being joined on stage by five YOG athletes – Lilia Maamar (Equestrian) from Morocco, Jaheel Hyde (Athletics) from Jamaica, Dilixiati Dilana (Basketball) from China, Ivana Jorovic (Tennis) from Serbia, and Gabrielle Fa’amausili (Swimming) from New Zealand – with whom he took his own “YOG selfie”. Everyone in attendance was then asked to post their selfies to #YOGselfie.

NANJING, Aug. 16, 2014 (Xinhua) — Olympic Rings is seen during the opening ceremony for Nanjing 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province, Aug. 16, 2014. (Xinhua/Cheng Min)

“By sending this selfie … you are sending a strong message around the world,” President Bach continued. “You are showing your passion for sport and for fair competition. You are demonstrating that Olympic sport reaches beyond competition. It is also about sharing, learning and making friends across our globe.”

The Opening Ceremony was produced by Chen Weiya, the executive director of the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. In the true spirit of the YOG, the show got off to a lively start and remained that way throughout the extravaganza in a ceremony tailored to appeal to young people and demonstrate the youthful vitality and spirit of the YOG. There were 4,000 performers in total, 95 percent of whom were young students from Chinese universities.

The Ceremony highlighted the great history of Nanjing and China, its icons and landmarks, including the Purple Mountain Observatory and the Yunjin brocade. Explorer Zheng He’s expeditionary voyages to the west and the development of the Silk Road were also showcased, as was the Nanjing 2014 theme song “Dianliang Weilai,” or “Light Up to Meet the Future,” which was performed by an international selection of singers from China, the Republic of Korea and Russia.

The Opening Ceremony was attended by such dignitaries as President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and IOC Honorary President Jacques Rogge.

The second edition of the Summer Youth Olympic Games will take place between 16 and 28 August.