The Beijing 2008 Wushu Tournament, an international martial arts competition to be held on the sidelines of the Beijing Olympic Games next year, will involve players from five continents, officials said as they expressed confidence in their ability to promote the sport globally.

"The participation of people from all over the world in wushu is very important, so the Beijing 2008 Wushu Tournament will involve people from five continents," said Wang Xiaolin, president of the Chinese Wushu Association (CWA) and secretary-general of the International Wushu Federation (IWUF).

The tournament will be held from August 21 to 24 next year at Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium during the Beijing Games and will feature 10 events for taolu (the routines) and five for sanshou (the fights).

The top six finishers in the taolu events and the top eight in the sanshou events from the 9th World Wushu Championships have already qualified for the tournament next summer. There are an additional 20 wild-card spots that have yet to be filled.

"We will allocate the 20 wild cards according to the development of wushu in certain countries, and try to cover people from all the five continents," said Wang.

The 9th World Wushu Championships, which was held from November 11 to 17, demonstrated how quickly the sport has developed in the world, as it attracted a record entry of nearly 1,000 athletes from 90 countries and regions. Players from 15 different countries and regions claimed medals.

"I'm delighted to see such a situation because it means that wushu is becoming increasingly popular throughout the whole world," said Wang. "During the competitions, no athlete appealed for unfair judgment, which shows that the referees are impartial and the judging system is efficient in maintaining the fairness."

China began to promote wushu in 1982, and held the first International Wushu Invitational Tournament in 1985 in Xi'an of northwestern China's Shaanxi Province. Since then wushu has sprouted up in many other countries and regions. There are currently 120 members in the IWUF.

The rapid development of the sport, which originated from China, has pleased wushu officials, who said better competition between nations only helps the sport grow.

"Chinese players used to have big advantages compared with those from overseas, but this time, we had no domination," said Wang. "Although we sent our best players to compete, they won with great difficulty and the gap between Chinese players and other countries has become smaller. As president of CWA, I'm very glad to see this, since the competition will help develop the sport."

China's wushu officials have always had a goal of making wushu an Olympic sport. Though wushu has been ruled out for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and 2012 London Games, Wang said they plan to continue their efforts.

"Enlarging the membership of IWUF is one of our main tasks, and we will also try to include wushu into more major sports games, such as the African Games, Pan-American Games and Commonwealth Games," Wang said.

"Television coverage should also be increased and we will try to get more support from well-known commercial enterprises."

Promoting wushu among young people is also one of Wang's top priorities, who said their involvement is crucial for the "persistent development" of the sport, especially if it is ever to be included in the Olympics.

But Wang stressed that entering the Olympic Games is not their only goal: "We hope more people in the world will pick up wushu as a sport for health."

In order to further popularize the sport, Wang said that simplification and standardization of the rules are also critical steps.

"We have made great progress in the standardization of the competition," he said, pointing specifically to the new computer-scoring system and the three teams of judges who evaluate technical quality, difficulty and athletes' skill levels.

"Besides, we need to make it simple. Many foreign people find it hard to learn since wushu derives from a wide variety of ancient Chinese martial arts and the ethics of it are profound."

(China Daily November 23, 2007)