Chinese Paralympic athletes eagerly waits Tokyo Paralympics to open

TOKYO - With the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games just two days away, Chinese athletes showed their eager for the Games to open.

Their enthusiasm could be seen when they took early morning trainings.

A number of teams of the Chinese Paralympic Delegation, including the athletics, swimming, cycling, wheelchair fencing, and gateball teams which just arrived in Tokyo on Friday, kicked off their pre-games training early on Saturday.

Some of them, like the athletics team's running and jumping group, chose to have some physical training in the Paralympic Village, while others went to get familiar with their respective main competition venues.

"I have adapted to life here. I am quite used to the climate, temperature, and food, "said Wang Hao, an athlete of the track team. "The Paralympic Games are finally coming, I've waited for so long."

"I'm just excited and can't wait to participate in it. Hopefully I'll realize my dream in Tokyo!" added Wang, who had even done some physical training, belly curls, side leg lifts, planks in bedroom right after his arrival at the athletes village.

The athletes chose the morning session also because they took the COVID-19 prevention into consideration.

"We opted to take the morning session in order to avoid the potential danger of the COVID-19 infection in a crowded training hall amid the epidemic," said Wang Chunlei, deputy leader of the Chinese Paralympic athletics team.

The Chinese wheelchair basketball team also got up early, starting with a 45-minute training session at 8 am in the morning. They went to the Musashino Forest Sports Plaza in the afternoon to have their wheelchairs checked, and then had the field adaptation training.

While active in training, the vision-challenged team did not forget to take epidemic prevention measures, having carefully disinfected the ground and the goal in the competitive venue before starting training.

China will send a total of 437 members including 251 athletes to the Tokyo Paralympic Games. The first batch of about 190 people arrived here on Thursday with three more batches following in the next few days.

The Tokyo Paralympic Games will open on August 24 and close on September 5.