Brilliant Opening Ceremony

Last night the Opening Ceremony of the World Games took place at the newly built Main Stadium in Kaosiung, Taiwan. This stadium is a remarkable piece of architecture designed and built specifically for the games.

Pic: Main Stadium, Kaosiung, Taiwan

The Opening ceremony was, as expected a grand affair, with an entertaining cultural and musical line up. The show was capped with the customary fireworks show, even better than the previous night's opening of the World Games Plaza.

Pic: Fireworks finale at the Main Stadium

The highlight though has to be walking into the arena with the rest of Team South Africa. We have one of the larger teams at the games and definitely the second largest presence at the opening ceremony, after hosts Taiwan. Just before entering the stadium in the parade of nations, we entered the tunnel below the main stand where the massed South African voices struck up a booming 'Shozaloza' to counter some patriotic war cry from the Swiss team close behind us. With the 100 strong team, it was enough to send shivers down any teams back. It is truly a priviledge to be here.

Pic: Team South Africa shortly before entering the Main Stadium

The Games were officially opened by the President of Taiwan before we were entertained to an enjoyable and interactive international music ensemble.

Pic: The 105 teams at the World Games lined up inside the stadium with Team South Africa in the foreground

Movie Clip: 40'000 stadium seats filled to capacity together with another 5'000 people watching and listening from outside

The Taiwanese people have been extremely gracious hosts and very friendly. We have been constantly greeted and encouraged wherever we go in and around the city. We've now had to stop and pose for countless photographs with the locals. One of the more remarkable encounters was with a South African-Taiwanese couple. He was originally from Ferndale, Randburg, a few blocks from where Tania lives. More amazingly, he and his wife were married in the exact hotel where we are currently staying. This in a city with hundreds of hotels.

Not everything yesterday was about the opening ceremony. Earlier in the day we also visited the official model event in preparation for the orienteering competition. This took place in the Central Park in the middle of the city. Conditions were of course hot and muggy, but we survived. The mapping is very good and it should be quite enjoyable.

Pic: Control point during the model event at Central Park, Kaosiung, Taiwan.

Later this afternoon is the first competition of the Orienteering at the World Games. It is the Sprint Distance Final. Tania starts at 14h03 local time with Nicholas off at 15h08. Taiwan time is 6 hours ahead of South African local time. As per the recent World Cup event in Finland, there will be live tracking of the athletes via a GPS transmitter that we wear on our back. Full live-updates and tracking will be available through the World Games website at http://wg2009.orienteering.org/