体坛英语新闻：Nanjing wins hosting right for 2nd Youth Olympics

VANCOUVER, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Nanjing of China won the hosting right for the second Summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in 2014 here on Wednesday.

Nanjing won the vote by a narrow margin 47-42 over the only other candidate city Poznan of Poland.

The result was announced by International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge at the 122nd IOC session in Vancouver.

Talking about the close competition with Poznan, Zhu Shanlu, director of the Nanjing Bidding Committee said he felt nervous when seeing the narrow result.

"I had thought about another result, because I always knew how hard and fierce it was to compete with Poznan," said Zhua after the session.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) holds its 122nd session in Vancouver, Canada, Feb. 10, 2010. IOC president Jacques Rogge announced during the session on Wednesday that Nanjing of China won the hosting right for the second Summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in 2014

Nanjing, the capital city of eastern China's Jiangsu Province and the ninth largest city in China, joined Mexico's Guadalajara and Poland's Poznan in the running, before Guadalajara dropped out in January.

"We have a lot of things to do in the future, and we are ready to take the responsibility," Zhu said in the later press conference.

"Our city was very famous for its long history and the college education. We hope the Youth Olympic Games can boost the development of the physical education in China."

The 2014 Games is scheduled to take place over 12 days with up to 3,500 athletes aged 14-18 competing in as many as possible of the 26 official Olympic summer sports.

"We don't need to build new venues for the YOG, because we've already had high-level stadiums for the National Games five years ago, which are quite capable for the YOG. We don't have to waste money," Zhu said.

Nanjing determined to use its existing venues, as 21 of the required 25 already in existence and in close proximity to the proposed site of the Olympic Village.

"Whilst there may be a risk of over-sizing compared with the minimum requirements and YOG philosophy set out by the IOC in terms of venues and service levels, we has agreed to work closely with the IOC, and a number of proposals have already been made in this regard," said Zhu.

"The IOC expect high quality of the YOG. Of course the standard of the YOG is not the same with the Olympic Games, so we don't need huge stadiums. Small venues can create better atmosphere for the youth," said IOC member Gilber Feili.

Talking about how the YOG was compared to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Zhu expressed that the audience and the functions were not quite the same.

"We want the emphasis to be on education, sports and cultural exchange." he said.

"The Olympic Village will be used as the rental apartment for the university graduates. We have a sustainable after-use plan for facilities of the YOG," he added.

"We can offer a lot of culture in the YOG, and we are very experienced."

"We are fully supported by our central government, provincial government and the Chinese Olympic Committee."

More than 97% of the residents in Nanjing are supporting the city's bid for the 2014 Games, as shown in a survey by the Nanjing Opinion Poll Center in last December.

According to the survey, 93.38% of the Nanjing residents will be willing to work as volunteers for the Games, and the percentage is particularly high (96.52%) among those below age 35.

With a population of approximately 7.4 million, the city's 117 million US dollars budget appeared to be consistent with the levels of service.

"We haven't thought too much about attract sponsors before winning the hosting right. But to my surprise, several companies in Canada showed interest when I met them in Vancouver," Zhu said.

"I don't think it will be difficult for us to find sponsors."

The vision of the YOG is to inspire young people around the world to participate in sports and adopt and live by the Olympic values.