Tianjin ready to host disabled athletes

Disabled athletes will gather in Tianjin next week for the national games that are held once every four years.

The 10th National Games of Disabled Persons and the Seventh Special Olympics will be held in Tianjin from Sunday to Sept 1, according to the China Disabled Persons' Federation.

This year the events will draw a record 35 delegations with 6,000 athletes, representing almost all of China's provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions and the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, the federation said at a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday.

The games this year have set up 43 sports, some of which have been completed in the first half of this year.

In Tianjin, athletes will compete in 20 sports starting on Sunday, according to the federation.

This will be an important occasion for the athletes to prepare for the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo and the 2022 Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, said Zhang Junjie, deputy director of the federation's sports department.

Different from previous events, this year's games have also allowed amateur athletes to participate in five sports including wheel dancing, chess and rope skipping, he said.

Tianjin, which also hosted the 13th National Games of China in 2017, will be the first city in the country to host all three national sports events.

The upcoming games will reuse the city's sports heritage - facilities and other resources remaining after 13th National Games - in a bid to develop a green sports meeting.