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Gwangju Universiade concludes, labelled as "a big, big success"

Xinhua, July 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

The 12-day 2015 Gwangju Summer Universiade concluded here on Tuesday and was praised as "a big, big success".

At the final press briefing, Claude-Louis Gallien, president of the International University Sports Federation (FISU), said that all the athletes and coaches were "very happy" to have taken part in the Universiade here in Gwangju, some 330 kilometers southwest of Seoul.

"It's not a miracle, it's a big, big success," Gallien said. "It's the fruit of a lot of work during the games from 30,000 people on the organizing committee staff and 20,000 volunteers. They were extremely important."

Gallien also said that the quality of play and venues was "considered by everyone very high."

"In some individual and team sports, the quality was at the world level," he said. "There has been nothing but good games from the sports' point of view."

Gallien mentioned the men's basketball final between the United States and Germany which the U.S. team won 84-77 after two overtimes, and archery competitions and the men's 100m sprint in which South African runner Akani Simbine clocked 9.97 seconds for the title.

"This wasn't just a big, huge universiade. It was felt by all the participants as a friendly universaide. It has been organized for them to feel the university sports spirit," Gallien said.

A record of 12,885 athletes and officials from 143 countries and regions took part in the 21-sport, 272-event Universiade. Altogether 27 universiade records were broken during the 12 competitions days.

After Hungary's win in the men's water polo final on Tuesday, the medal table is finalized with host South Korea on the top with 47 gold, 32 silver and 29 bronze medals. The hosts of the last two Universiade Russia and China finished second and third respectively. Russia stands with 34-39-49 while China is at 34-22-16.

Gallien highlighted the efforts by Gwangju to keep costs to a minimum while still achieving high efficiency. Of the 69 venues used at the Universiade, only four were newly built and the rest were refurbished.

The closing ceremony will be held on Tuesday evening. Endi