A meeting on preparatory work for the 18th Asian Athletics Championships was held on the morning of April 23. The Championships are to be held between November 10th and 14th at Guangzhou Olympic Sports Center when over 700 athletes and technical officials from 45 countries in Asia are expected to take part in the event.

The runner is participating the Women’s 20km Race Walk in 17th Asian Athletics Champions in Amman, Jordan.

The Guangzhou Olympic Sports Center is the venue for track and field events in the coming 16th Asian Games. As for the 18th Asian Athletics Championships, the gymnasium at the Guangdong University of Technology will be for training of throwing events such as discus and javelin. The gymnasium at the Guangdong Olympic Sports Center and the Guangzhou Sports Training and Technical College will be the venue for the training sessions for the other events. In the meantime, the 18th Asian Athletics Association Congress (AAAC) is also to be held in Guangzhou.

On the afternoon of April 23, Mr. Maurice R. Nicholas, the Secretary General of the Asian Athletics Association, visited the Guangzhou Olympic Sports Center where all the preparatory work, including improvements on the runway and installation of network facilities, should be completed before the championships are held.

After hearing the report on preparatory work for the 18th Asian Athletics Championships, Mr. Nicholas said that Guangzhou boasts world-class facilities in terms of sports venues, organization of events and marketing. He believed that the track and field events would become more popular in Guangzhou, or even in the whole of China, because the city is hosting the 18th Asian Athletics Championships.