2nd Qinghai International Curling Elite Competition starts in West China

XINING, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- The 2nd Qinghai International Curling Elite started on Friday at Duoba National Highland Physical Training Base in Qinghai, attracting 18 top teams from 9 countries including Canada, America, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Scotland, Russian, Italy and China. This competition is the 2nd curling competition held in Qinghai and will last for 7 days.

Last year, the first Qinghai China International Curling Competition was successfully held in Duoba Base, which was awarded as the National Highland Winter Sports Training Base in that competition.

"The organizing committee has gained a lot of experience in preparing the venue and operating curling events, so the curling competition in Qinghai this year has been upgraded to an elite competition," Zhang Ning, the director of Qinghai Sports Bureau said at the Opening Ceremony.

He also added that this competition will maintain the principles of government-led and buisness-particupated development, and will help to promote winter sports in China.

"This competition is one of the trainings for Chinese National Curling Team, and a pre-training for Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games, and more importantly, it will set an example for cities in Northwest of China in developing and hosting ice sports competitions," said Sun Yuanfu, the Director of Organizing Committee. Enditem