A boy performing with a cudgel |
A girl performing sword play. |
The three-day martial arts competition of the 12th National Student Sports Games kicked off in the Jiading district of Shanghai on July 28.
More than 270 athletes from 26 delegations across the country took part in 16 events including boys’ and girls’ quanshu (fist martial arts), sword play, broadsword play, cudgel play and spear play.
Xiang Jianan, 14, from the Fujian delegation, won the first prize in the cudgel play. He told the reporter that he had been fond of martial arts since he was a little child, and had learnt it at a professional martial arts school. “I have to give a good performance as my family came all the way here to cheer me on,” said Jianan. Like Jianan’s family, there were also many other athletes’ parents, who came to Jiading from all over the country to support their children.