Asian Para Games 2023 Officially Opened Today

Venue pembukaan Asian Para Games 2023. (Photo via Antara)

JAKARTA - The Asian Para Games 2023 will officially open on Sunday, October 22. The ceremony will be held at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center at 19.00 local time or 18.00 WIB.

One of the highlights of the event is the golden osmanthus flower form that was previously found at the Hangzhou 2023 Asian Games. The General Director of the Hangzhou Asian Para Games Opening Ceremony, Sha Xiaolan, said the gold osmanthus flower symbolizes blessings for the athletes. In addition, the osmanthus flower itself has long symbolized love and loyalty.

In Chinese culture, these flowers are commonly found in wedding parties or given as gifts from brides to her new family, which symbolizes peace.

Meanwhile, in flower language, osmanthus flowers mean sustenance, prosperity, and complaints.

Furthermore, Sha said there were also special performances that performed a number of songs in sign language.

Before the opening ceremony was held, previously there was a torch relay that started and passed Chun'an, Jiande, Tonglu, Fuyang, and Xiaoshan in Hangzhou. On Sunday, the torch will arrive at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center and then the main torch tower will be lit.

The first phase of the Torch Estate began in Chun'an on Thursday (19/10) at Xiushui Square, with 82 torch carriers participating.

Tan Yujiao, the Tokyo Paralympic gold medalist in the Powerlifting branch, became the first torch bearer of the torch relay in Chun'an. Meanwhile, Tan has broken the world record 19 times, and remains the world record holder for Women's 67kg Powerlifting.

He was honored to be the first torch bearer of the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Para Games and hopes to convey the spirit of persistence, self-development, and efforts to achieve an advantage to the world over athletes.