A vibrant sports festival
(Baonghean) - With the theme "Nghe An Sports Reaching New Heights," the opening ceremony of the 7th Nghe An Provincial Sports Festival - 2014 was spectacular, featuring parades and displays of strength. In particular, the meticulously prepared mass performance praising love for the homeland, country, and people of Nghe An left a lasting impression on the audience.
At exactly 8 PM, the opening ceremony of the 7th Nghe An Provincial Sports Festival 2014 officially took place, but hours before that, hundreds of people representing the participating forces had gathered and lined up neatly along the roads leading to the Vinh City Sports Arena, where the ceremony was held. Traffic police were present on the roads to ensure traffic safety and order. For many people, the sports festival was truly a special event. Ms. Tran Thi Thanh Ngan (Ha Huy Tap Ward, Vinh City) excitedly shared: "My whole family is very enthusiastic about exercising and regularly participates in competitions and cheers for sports events at the ward and city levels. The Provincial Sports Festival is a major cultural and sporting event held only once every four years, so there will be exciting competitions. In particular, the opening ceremony usually features impressive parades and mass sports performances, so my family and I are really looking forward to this year's Provincial Sports Festival."
The late afternoon thunderstorm had made the air in Vinh City cool and pleasant, creating ideal conditions for a solemn and colorful ceremony. On the stands were delegates, youth union members from various agencies and units in the province, students from schools in Vinh City, and a large number of citizens. As the music played, thousands of people crowded the stadium to watch the parade showcasing the strength of the participants. Leading the parade was a drum and trumpet band of young people welcoming the congress; followed by the national flag, a group displaying portraits of President Ho Chi Minh, and the flag of the Sports Congress. Following the red flag contingent, with hundreds of athletes in sporty attire, were groups of senior citizens, workers, students, and representatives from districts, towns, cities, and sectors within the province.
 |
| Athletes from Que Phong participate in the parade at the opening ceremony. Photo: SM |
Next came the traditional torch-lighting ceremony of the Provincial Sports Festival. The torch symbolizes the glorious legacy of previous generations for future generations, a symbol of fostering determination, noble and pure sportsmanship, and the aspiration to reach new heights in sports. In her opening speech at the 7th Nghe An Provincial Sports Festival, Ms. Dinh Thi Le Thanh - Member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee - emphasized: "Since the 6th Sports Festival in 2010, with the attention and guidance of the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People's Council, and the Provincial People's Committee, the coordination of various departments and organizations in the province, and the support and encouragement from the whole country, the sports and physical education sector of our province has made significant progress."
The sports and physical education movement in our province has received attention and guidance from Party committees and authorities at all levels, and has been actively participated in by organizations, agencies, businesses, and the entire population. Infrastructure serving sports and physical education activities has been continuously improved. As a result, mass sports and physical education continue to develop, high-performance sports have made new strides, with achievements in some disciplines reaching regional and Asian levels, and the position of sports in Nghe An province is constantly progressing. To ensure that the 7th Nghe An Provincial Sports Festival – 2014 is truly a competition for outstanding athletes, thereby affirming the position of the sports movement in the localities, and at the same time selecting and supplementing outstanding athletes for the provincial team to participate in the National Sports Festival held in Nam Dinh province in December 2014, the participating teams must compete with a spirit of solidarity, enthusiasm, honesty, and sportsmanship, striving to achieve the highest results, contributing to the people with exciting matches, thrilling and beautiful moments, worthy of the heroic Soviet homeland and the sports center of the North Central region.
 |
| A group performance at the opening ceremony. Photo: Sy Minh |
| The 7th Nghe An Provincial Sports Festival attracted nearly 2,000 athletes from 24 delegations representing districts, cities, the Provincial Police, the Provincial Military, and the Agriculture and Rural Development sector. The athletes competed in two stages: The pre-festival stage (February 28th – April 17th) featured nine sports: stick pushing, freestyle wrestling, cross-country running, karate, men's volleyball, beach volleyball, table tennis, and sepak takraw; the festival stage (May 11th – May 16th) included nine sports: women's volleyball, athletics, swimming, sepak takraw, petanque, badminton, chess, archery, and tug-of-war. |
The highlight of the opening ceremony of the congress was the comprehensive gymnastics and arts performance with the theme "Nghe An Sports Reaching New Heights". Inspired by the revolutionary traditions of Nghe An and the strong rise of national sports in general, and Nghe An sports in particular, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism developed a program script that was both heartfelt and profound, yet vibrant and powerful.
The elaborately staged performance, deeply rooted in the cultural identity of Nghe An province, recreated the heroic traditions of the people of Nghe An's ethnic groups and the continuous development of the province in general and the sports movement in particular. Hundreds of performers, in large groups, interwoven harmoniously in terms of color, sound, content, and form, represented a grand celebration of sports and solidarity. The artistic and sporting performance concluded with exhilarating emotions and resounding applause from thousands of people in the stands of the Vinh City Sports Arena, a welcoming gesture of the successful opening ceremony and the beginning of a successful Sports Festival.
Amidst the stirring music at the end of the opening ceremony, track and field athlete Tran Dinh Viet from Nam Dan district shared: “Participating in the parade and watching the synchronized performance, I feel very honored and excited. This is my first time participating in the Provincial Sports Festival, and I hope to bring home a medal for my hometown of Nam Dan in the long jump event, thereby further promoting the development of track and field in the district.” Meanwhile, athlete Gia Ba Chong from Ky Son district shared: “This is my second time participating in the Provincial Sports Festival, but I am still very eager to compete, interact, and learn from athletes from other districts. Competing in the stick pushing event, a traditional sport of the ethnic minorities in the mountainous region, I will try my best to win the highest prize.”
The opening ceremony has ended, but in the hearts of every athlete and every citizen in attendance, the beloved President Ho Chi Minh's call for all citizens to exercise remains: "Every weak citizen weakens the whole country to some extent; every healthy citizen contributes to the strength of the whole country. Therefore, practicing physical exercise and improving health is the duty of every patriotic citizen."
Mai Anh