The Provincial Games will be held again in Yichang after 28 years. At 20 o’clock on Oct. 14th, the 15th annual games in Hubei province ended successfully in the Huangshi Gymnasium. Yichang, as the host city of the 16th annual games in Hubei province in 2022, participated in the flag-receiving ceremony and issued a sincere invitation of “Welcome to Yichang” to the whole province. Zhang Jiasheng, deputy secretary and mayor of Yichang, took the flag on behalf of the city. Liu Weiling, member of the Standing Committee and deputy mayor, attended the closing ceremony. 

　　On the scene of the closing ceremony, all seats were occupied at the Huangshi gymnasium with a warm atmosphere. Accompanied by the beautiful melody of the song of the 15th annual games in Hubei province, the flag of the Provincial Games and the flag of the 15th annual games in Hubei province hauled down slowly, and the main torch of the Provincial Games was slowly extinguished. Following the flag-receiving ceremony, Zhang Jiasheng solemnly took over the flag and showed it to the audience, followed bythunderous applause.

　　The Provincial Games opened on Oct.8th, with 30 delegations and about 16,000 athletes. They participated in the competitions of mass sports and youth sports, 77 major events and 1307 small events. Yichang delegation sent more than 1800 players to participate in the competition, which won a total of 398 medals and was awarded as“Spiritual civilization delegation of the 15th annual games in Hubei province”. The Yichang Municipal Sports Bureau was also awarded as“the outstanding contribution unit of cultivation of sports reserve talents in the 15th annual games in Hubei province cycle (2015-2018)”.

　　The Provincial Games, held every four years, is a comprehensive sports meeting with the largest scale, highest specifications and strongest competitive level in the whole province. As early as 1994, Yichang hosted the ninth annual games in Hubei province.In September this year, Yichang competed with Xiaogan at the 4th plenary meeting of the Organizing Committee of the 15th annual games in Hubei province.Yichang eventually won with 45:12 votes and became the host of the Provincial Games again.

　　At that time, Yichang will take “Green Yichang,Provincial Games for All” as the theme and strive to present a wonderful sports event for the people of the province, in accordance with the principle of “green, open, sharing, and integrity” and the idea of “government leading, social support, market operation,and characteristics display”.

　　During the bidding process, Yichang produced and widely spread the city image propaganda film with the theme of “Starting the campaign in Yichang, enjoying the Provincial Games in Yichang”.With youth, health, vigor and passion as the key words, the promotional film showed the unique charm and beauty of Yichang from various perspectives of the aspects of history, humanities, hardware facilities, event guarantee and national sports,which sent out the strongest voice of “gathering the strength of Yichang and holding the wonderful Provincial Games”.

　　At present, Yichang has 6,299 sports and fitness venues (gymnasiums), among which nearly 100 standard stadiums, gymnasiums and comprehensive training halls can be used to hold the Provincial Games. The new Yichang Olympic Sports Center will be fully operational in 2019.