The 13th China National Winter Games has concluded with a remarkable outdoor ceremony at the Silk Road ski resort in Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi on Saturday, Jan. 30, which is said to be one of the country's efforts to drum up interest to the venue in connection to Beijing's hosting of the 2022 Winter Olympics.

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China Daily said that "it is for the first time since the National Winter Games were launched in 1959 that the event has been held outside the northeast provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang".

Fifty two contingents that include 1,388 athletes of the Asian sports giant from all over the country have competed during the 11-day event, which featured 97 competitions in five different sports disciplines.

The report also mentioned that of the 346 doping tests conducted until one day before the closing ceremony, none of the athletes have tested positive for any kind of banned substance, which is a good sign of success according to the event's organizers, as per Cri English.

The country's sports official have disclosed that this year's winter games is a key avenue to prepare China's top winter athletes to be at their best come the 2022 winter Olympics, which includes events that will be contested by athletes aged 19 years old and below.

China's first Olympic 1000-meter champion Zhang Hong, who captured the speed skating gold medal in the said event during the 2014 Sochi Olympics, has accumulated three golds during the games, including the women's 500, 1000, and 1500 meters in Urumqi.

Short track speed skater Fan Kexin captured two golds, in the 500 and 1500 meters, and at the same time breaking the existing world record in the latter event "by more than half a second".

Another former Olympic speed skating champion, Zhou Yang, claimed two golds in the women's 1000-meter short track, breaking the national record, and in the 3000-meter relay, spearheading team Changchun in the final of the said event.

The 24-year-old Zhou had previously won the golds in the 1500-meter event during the 2010 Vancouver and 2014 Sochi games, and she had expressed her desire to win a third consecutive gold in the 2018 PyeongChang, South Korea Winter Olympics.

TagsChina sports, China sports news, China sports news 2016, 2016 China National Winter Games, Xinjiang