The third edition of the games will be held in Hambantota of Sri Lanka in 2017. Host China formally handed over the flag of the Asian Youth Games to the Sri Lankan Games Committee during the closing ceremony held at the 18,000-seat capacity gymnasium of Nanjing Olympic Sports Center.
Nearly 16,000 students of local schools performed during the grand closing ceremony. The students aged between 14 and 17 years gave performances reflecting Chinese tradition and culture. [break]
The dress for the Youth Olympic Games to be held next year at the same city was also rehearsed during the same function. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka, the host for the next edition of Youth Asian Games, also came up with an eight-minute performance. The first edition of the games was held in Singapore.
Nearly 3,500 players from 45 different countries of Asia competed in 16 different events during the games. Host China finished on top of the medals tally with a total of 93 medals, including 46 golds. Chinese players won 18 golds in athletics and 16 in swimming. They also took golds in both the boys´ and girls´ singles of table tennis, the national game of China.
South Korea finished second with a total of 52 medals, including 25 golds, while Japan finished third. Japan bagged a total of 18 medals, including seven golds. Among all the participating nations, 17 won golds while 29 earned at least one medal.
India and Sri Lanka were the only South Asian countries to win medals. India participated under the flag of the Olympic Committee due to the ban on the Indian Olympic Committee. The Indian team claimed three gold, four silver and seven bronze medals. Sri Lanka earned one silver and five bronze medals.
Meanwhile, South Korea took gold in football defeating Iran 1-0 in the final. North Korea defeated Iraq 6-5 on penalties to take bronze.
Altogether 11 players had represented Nepal in swimming, athletics, judo, table tennis and fencing during the games. Female runner Sangita Khadka´s performance was the most memorable for Nepal in the games. Swimmer Shirish Gurung set a national record while judoka Phupu Lhamu Khatri achieved the only win for Nepal. Table tennis player Mani Kumar Lama emerged as a future star of Nepal.
In her first international participation, runner Khadka achieved her personal best in both the 1500m and 3000m races. She also completed the 3000m race despite being injured.
Bastola was the only Nepali player left during the closing ceremony as all other players had left Nanjing. Chaturananda Baidya was the chef de mission of Nepali team and Sujan Lal Shrestha and Krishna Raj Ghale were the headquarters officers.
Youth Asian Games is organized as part of the preparations for the Youth Olympics which was held successfully. Nearly 15,000 volunteers were mobilized to run the event successfully. They were handed all responsibility including the security of stadium and VVIP, guest management and others. According to the organizers of the Nanjing Games Committee, the youths were assigned the important task as per the strategy of giving exposures to Chinese youths.
Related story
Govt allocates Rs 2.4 billion for Asian Games, SAG and National...
