(Sports Focus) Spotlights of Gwangju Universiade

The Gwangju Universiade concluded on Tuesday and the multi-sport event leaves behind some memorable figures, stories and legacy.

CHINESE BAREFOOT HEROINE

Chinese girl Zhang Yingying won two medals here out of 10,000 meters and half marathon. What's touching for her story is not the medals, but how she won her bronze medal in the 10,000m. Zhang finished third on July 8 in 10,000m barefoot after her right-foot sneaker had been stepped off in the middle of the race. The 25-year-old held on to finish about 5,000 meters with one shoe on. The right foot was full of bloody blisters as she crossed the finish line.

The injury had not stopped her from participating the scheduled half marathon. Just four days later, Zhang captured the title of the half marathon with her right foot not healed yet.

Comparing the two medals, Zhang values her bronze in the 10,000m even much more than the gold. "The bronze out of 10,000m is the most important medal of my life. I don't think I'm afraid of any difficulty in the future," said Zhang. "When the hard time comes, I think I can overcome it by recollecting my experience on the 10,000m track of Gwangju Universiade."

CANCER-BATTLING HERO

Just six months after recovering from testicular cancer, Thomas Van der Plaetsen successfully defended his decathlon title at the Universiade on July 9.

The Belgian athlete was diagnosed with cancer in October when a doping test revealed his unusually high level of HCG, a hormone indicative of the tumor. What perhaps distinguishes Van der Plaetsen from most other ailing athletes is that giving up was never an option. "Obviously, I was very upset and very unhappy about it because it's something you never want to have in your life," the 24-year-old recalled his experience. "But I had to go on. I was very shocked at first, but then I tried to just accept it." [ Despite undergoing chemotherapy, even suffering from hair loss, Van der Plaetsen continued to train rigorously every day to break his own national record at the IAAF world indoor championships in 2014 with a score of 6,259 points. Last year, the athlete received the male Golden Spike Award, which is considered to be the highest honor awarded to Belgian athletes annually.

Van der Plaetsen's success thus far surely will inspire others in similar situations. "I think my story says that you should never give up," he said. "Even if you're going through a bad period, you should keep focusing on the future and if you love and like what you do, you should go for it."

STITCHED SHOE

Fallon Forde, an athlete from the little-known Caribbean country of Barbados, who walked away this Universiade with his season-best time of 21.46 seconds in the 200-meter sprint on the stitched sneaker, which is offered from a friend.

The front part of his left shoe ripped down the middle during training with only five days remaining until his first appearance at the competition. Had it not been for his attache who managed to find a local seamstress to repair it quickly, Forde would have had to sit out his first Universiade, for which he made a grueling 24-hour flight.

But this kind of mishap was just the tip of the iceberg of the extra challenges Forde has encountered. Forde is from a family of six living on slender income. "I come from a small country, so we don't have many sponsors," he said. "The little assistance I receive is from schools. They help me with therapy, but that's about it."

Forde's story has won him the SK Happiness Scholarship, which totals at 50 million won (44,000 US dollars).

The 25-year-old switched over to sprinting from basketball at the ripe age of 19. When asked how he felt in his worn shoes, Forde said he barely noticed a difference.

FRIENDS-MAKING PARTY

As athletes and also students at the same time, the Universiade gives them a great opportunity to make friends worldwide, learn different cultures, enjoy each other's competition on

the arena and company in the Athletes Village.

A couple of culture festivals, such as World Youth Festival and Youth Nanjang Festival, were held during the Universiade. Athletes really enjoyed the Universiade as culture-tasting and friends-making party.

Chinese diver Zheng Shuangxue, the winner of Universiade first gold, cherishes the experience much more than her victory. "I made many friends and had a lot of fun here, so I'm so happy to have the chance to attend the Universiade," said Zheng in talking about her most impressive memory here. "All the divers from American team are my friends now. They told me what's their daily lives like and what they value the most in their schools." Zheng, who's a student from China's top University Tsinghua, can speak fluent English and that helps her a lot in making foreign friends and to have an overseas study in the States is one of her choices after graduation.

For another Chinese diver Peng Jianfeng, a triple gold medalist here from Guangzhou Sports University, it's not that easy to make foreign friends for he can't speark a foreign language. What surprised him is that he found two athletes from Malaysia can speak Cantonese, a dialect of China's Guangdong province. That works and the three have been very close friends now, offering home visit invitation to each other.

FUTURE LEADERS' STEP

Youth Leadership Program (YLP), hosted by the United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP) and Gwangju, was held amidst Universiade to empower youth in developing backgrounds and conflict areas. The program helped give the tools and strengthen a community's capacity to build on its strengths and respond to pressing community needs. Global youth have expressed their talents and passion outside of the competition venues.

Dozens of students from a variety of countries were provided the opportunity to report here through the "Young Reporter Program". Jiang Kaixiao from China's Beijing Sports University is one of the young reporters. "I can not remember how many reports I had written. It's a great internship for me and I spoke more English here than I had been speaking in China for years," said Jiang. "It's such a great experience and I just enjoyed it. I didn't take my job here as work but fun, totally fun. I talked with students of my age from many countries and that taught me a lot. I think that will help me to make a better future."

FISU President Claude-Louis Gallien's address at the opening ceremony emphasised that the Universiade wanted to help create better leaders in students, and sport gives an ideal channel to build such a platform.

"The legacy of this (Universiade) shall be ambitious and ambitious is to dream big. Today's stars, tomorrow's leaders! Engaged together we change the world," said Gallien at the opening ceremony. "The victory is to compare yourself, to work together and never give up. With you and for you everything is possible."

Part of Gallien's words have already been proved by athletes and others will believably be proved in the future. Endit