Asiad ends with glittering ceremony

The curtains came down on the 16th Asian Games on Staurday with a colourful closing ceremony that saw Olympic bronze medallist boxer Vijender Singh carrying the Indian flag at the athletes’ parade.

It was the best Asian Games for India, which won a record 14 golds, 17 silvers and 33 bronzes for an overall tally of 64, and surpassed their earlier record of 57 medals in the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi.

Akin to the opening ceremony, the closing ceremony was not held inside the showpiece Aoti Stadium, but on the boat-shaped island, better known as the Haixinsha Island, in the middle of the Pearl River at the heart of China’s third largest city, which saw police undertaking a massive security operation closing all the roads closed and shops.

Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) president Sheikh Ahmed Al Fahad Al Sabah in his closing address said that it was the best Asian Games.

The closing ceremony also saw Indian singers Ravi Tripathi and Tanya Gupta enthralling the capacity crowd.

“The 16th Asian Games, which has been a huge success, comes to an end. This edition of the Games has, without a doubt, been one of the most outstanding in the history of the event,” said Sabah.

An array of white fireworks were unleashed from the 610-metre Guangzhou Television Tower signalling the end of the Games. Besides these, there was also a spectacular display of multicoloured fireworks across the vast city’s hazy skyline.

A People’s Liberation Army band and a 1,000-strong choir belted out the Chinese national anthem to a packed grandstand.

Eight huge screens shaped like the sails of a ship glowed and boats decked out in bright lights as the names of each of the 45 competing nations or territories drifted up and down the river.

At the end of the ceremony, Guangzhou handed over the Asian Games torch to the South Korean city of Incheon, which will host the next Asian Games in 2014.