Athletes and delegation leaders from various participating countries have highly commented on the organization of the 9th Asian Winter Games, and expressed eager anticipation for the opening ceremony, set to officially kick off in the host city of Harbin in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Friday evening.
The week-long event, themed "Dream of Winter, Love among Asia," has gathered 1,275 competitors from 34 countries and regions, making this the largest ever edition of the Games in terms of overall participation.
Cambodia and Saudi Arabia will also make their Asian Winter Games debut in the city.
Ahead of the Games, many athletes voiced excitement about competition in the upcoming competitions.
"I really enjoy being here, it's a really nice organization here. Everything is really prepared for us and of course I'm hoping for the best. I'm hoping to win in the games. I think there's all the time, but like there is an opportunity to enjoy all the games where I'm going [to participate] because I am going for a lot of races. And yes of course I mean it's my first time being here in China and it's a really beautiful country and I think there's a lot to see, of course," said Alexandra Skorokhodova, a Kazakh athlete.
"They (my family members) were so surprised at first and they were so happy that we are having this sport, and [they asked me:] 'Really, are you going to the Asian games for this curling sport?' Yes. And they really support me, and they are really happy for me to be here to do this," said Pongsak Mahattanasakul, a Thai curling athlete.
The delegation leaders of Iran and Saudi Arabia also expressed their anticipation for the opening ceremony.
"Chinese people are very, very expert in organization, for races, for Asian Games. They can do best performance in the Asian Games. For the opening ceremony, I think we can show Asian culture to people abroad. I think we are going to have a very good [opening] ceremony and I like China. I like people in China and they [are] the best because they are very professional people," said Bagher Kalhor, head of Iran's delegation.
"When it comes to sports, sports weigh more than just a game. Sports bring people together, of course, the athletes and all NOCs (National Olympic Committees) get together. We're going to be super surprised to see the setup and the way how they going to march, carry the flame. And (I am) super excited to see all the setups and all the agenda we're going to see," said Hamad Alhawesh, head of Saudi Arabia's delegation.
International athletes speak highly of organization of upcoming Asian Winter Games
International athletes speak highly of organization of upcoming Asian Winter Games
An Egyptian-led international research team has uncovered a fossil site dating back 62.2 million years in Egypt, offering fresh insight into how modern marine ecosystems emerged after the extinction of dinosaurs.
Located in the Eastern Desert, the newly discovered site contains hundreds of exceptionally well-preserved marine fish fossils representing more than 20 previously unknown species.
Scientists have long struggled to understand what happened in the oceans following the catastrophic asteroid impact that ended the age of dinosaurs and wiped out roughly three-quarters of all species on Earth around 66 million years ago. Fossils from that period, known as the Patterson's Gap, are usually fragmented and hard to decipher.
With three complete fish skeletons unearthed at the Egyptian site, the discovery is being hailed as a major scientific breakthrough.
Scientists say this provides a rare snapshot of how marine life recovered and reorganized in the aftermath of the global ecological collapse.
Professor Hisham Sallam, who led the Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center team behind the discovery, said the findings challenge long-standing assumptions about the pace of marine evolution following the extinction event.
"Such a discovery provides very important insights that tell that Egypt was underwater at that time because of the ancient global warming that happened right after the dinosaurs went extinct. It also provides a unique window for when these marine fish started to appear. And they changed our understanding of what we say is Patterson's Gap, because that was a mysterious gap in the fossil records," he told China Global Television Network (CGTN) on Saturday.
The team told CGTN they are currently working on around 500 well-preserved fish specimens, all of which were found at the same site.
The discovery has recently been published in the journal Science Advances. Researchers say it will shape their work for years to come.
"We published an ecosystem that shows us that the dawn of the modern fishes happened earlier than we expected. It happened 62.2 million years ago, just less than 4 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs. It showed us that most of the current families and most of the current modern fishes, they have origins that go far back than we expected. Now some of these families could go far before the extinction of the dinosaurs," said Belal Salem, a researcher at the Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center.
Pictures of the paleontologists and their landmark achievements are being displayed inside the Faculty of Science building of the Mansoura University.
Sherif Khater, president of the 54-year-old institution, says the purpose is to motivate more students, as the university aims to boost its research capacity.
"We allocate financial prizes in an annual competition dedicated to young researchers and graduates through which their research paper gets reviewed and then for the winners we fund their research. Every year Mansoura University advances by 100 or 200 points on the global rank scale. We are among the top 500 universities in some programs. We aim within the next few years to be among the top 100 universities in the world," he told CGTN.
62-mln-year-old fossil site discovered in Egyptian desert
