Public will race, walk to Bird's Nest opening day
The main venue for the Beijing Olympic Games, the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, will be opened to the public for the first time next weekend for the Good Luck Beijing Race-Walking Challenge, which takes place from April 18-19.
Media from across the world will focus their attention on the Olympic test event since it will be their first opportunity to see the 90,000-seater stadium inside.
The organizing committee said it has received 1,129 applications from 180 media at home and abroad, set to make it the most widely covered one of all the Good Luck Beijing test events so far.
"All the preparation work for this test event has been completed and we are welcoming athletes, spectators and media from all over the world to take part in this tournament," said Zhang Jiandong, president of the organizing committee.
The competition will be divided into men's 20km, women's 20km and men's 50km and will draw 138 athletes from 10 countries, 105 of whom are Chinese.
"All the members of China's national race-walking team will take part. There are also three top-10 athletes from abroad," Zhang added.
"It is a very good chance for them as well as for us to test the race-walking venue.
"The organizing committee will make extra efforts to further improve the facility and service through this tournament in a bid to make sure we offer the best during the Beijing Games."
But Zhang said the stadium is not yet fully completed so there are only 25,000 tickets available for the competition.
"This is the first test event in the National Stadium. We will have a marathon event right after the walking challenge. Then we will have the last test event in late May. Only by the May competition, can we fully open the stands to the public."
The Olympic National Park, China National Convention Center, Olympic village and Olympic media village will also be completed by the end of this month.
(China Daily 04/11/2008 page23)
