Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The seventh Military World Games (MWG) of the International Military Sports Council (CISM) will be organized in Wuhan city of the People’s Republic of China from October 18 to 27. MWG features 25 official competition events, two demonstration events, covering 320 disciplines, among which Aeronautical Pentathlon, Military Pentathlon, Naval Pentathlon and Parachuting are military sports and the rest are Olympic sports.

To present the preparations of the event, China Daily news outlet of China invited journalists from 14 major news agencies. Therefore, a reporting team of the MONTSAME national news agency worked in Wuhan, China between July 11 and 15.

The Mongolian Armed Forces joined CISM in 1992 and claimed a silver medal from the first Military World Games held in Rome, Italy in 1995. Mongolia has been constantly taking part in events hosted by the council since renewing its membership in 2012. In particular, at the 2015 MWG held in the Republic of Korea, a team of the national armed forces competed in eight sporting events namely, shooting, boxing, archery, cycling, freestyle wrestling, judo, athletics, and taekwondo. In five of which, the team harvested a total of 24 medals – six gold, 12 silver, and six bronze medals – and took 16th place among 117 states. In addition, the Aldar sporting committee has been intensifying its activities having become a host country from participating country by hosting the first East Asian Military Games. 

Mongolian team consisting of over 110 delegates including some 80 athletes are preparing to participate at this year’s Military World Games.

Called the city of lakes, Wuhan covers a land area of 8,494 square kilometers in total. In the city with a history of 3,500 years, urban water area makes up one-fourth of the total area. The population of the city, which ranks third in China with the number of its universities and colleges, is 12 million. The city is of great strategic importance for the Belt and Road initiative. It is noted nationwide for its Yellow Crane Tower and East Lake and Mulan eco tourism areas. We visited the Wuhan Urban Planning Exhibition Hall to fully explore the city. In the facility with a total floorage of 22,430 square meters, five floors, and 18 exhibition zones, a scale model gives an all around display of the city. The hall also showcases Wuhan’s urban development history and those contributed to the development.

Thus far, invitation letters to the games have been sent to the 140 member countries of CISM and the competition management committees have started their work early on. For instance, 35 venues have been constructed and renovated, eight theme songs have been released, 30 thousand volunteers have been recruited, and 20 volunteer image ambassadors have been selected.

Esglobe Equestrian Sports Park

One of the main sports featured in the 7th MWG is horse riding. The competition venue, Esglobe Equestrian Sports Park is comprised of a 90x60 m2 equestrian arena and two 60x60 m2 warm up sites. A 10x9 m2 display screen connected to an electronic timing system is installed in the field. The venue has 620 seats and provides a barn for 30 horses and space for more than 60 temporary stables. What drew our interest is that the park tends to retired horses including two Mongolian horses.

Hubei Olympic Center Gymnasium

Inaugurated in June 2009, the Hubei Olympic Center Gymnasium covers an area of 66.67 hectares.

With a total construction area of 160 thousand square meters, the gymnasium has 8 indoor training centers: tennis complex hall, basketball and volleyball hall, table tennis and badminton hall, gymnastics hall, martial arts hall, swimming and diving hall, and track and field hall. The facility is the venue for the Men’s Gymnastics of the 7th MWG.

There are 5,315 seats in the gymnasium’s 70x42 m2 main hall and the stadium is equipped with 276 eco parking spaces and 56 new energy car charging piles. We got acquainted also with the Olympic-standard water sports venue of the competition.

East Lake Greenway

Cycling race and marathon competition of the 7th MWG will take place in the East Lake Greenway, an ecological tourist attraction where international cycling events and marathons are hosted.

There is a world class bike path with a length of 101 kilometers and a width of six meters in the greenway. The Greenway is equipped with 34 service stations where chairs, toilets, baby care rooms, shower rooms, convenience stores, and an aid station are available.

The Greenway’s smart system involves monitors, free Wi-Fi, a one click alarm, and an electronic map. By the end of March 2019, the Greenway had welcomed about 40 million visitors and hosted 2,200 large- and small-scale events with over 900 thousand people in attendance.

Athletes’ Village

In the framework of the tour for getting acquainted with the preparations of the seventh CISM Military World Games, we visited the Athletes’ Village. Covering an area of 565 thousand square meters, the village has 30 residential buildings with nearly 2,000 housing units as well as training, medical, logistics, and other service centers for athletes and coaches.

The Athletes’ Canteen covers an area of 16,500 square meters, the size of 40 basketball courts. With 1,200 chefs preparing Chinese, European and Arabian meals, it can hold 4,500 people at the same time. We also saw a 165 m2 housing unit for the athletes. It takes less than 40 minutes to drive from the village to 35 competition venues.

The 2018 MWG was held in the Republic of Korea, bringing together more than 8,000 soldiers from 105 countries and this year’s competition will definitely be of success.

B.Yanjindulam