On April 23rd of 2017, the first Health Qigong Exchange and Tournament of Italy came to a great success. This event was held in the city of Carpi in the mid-north part of Italy. 15 delegations from such provinces as Venezia, Verona, Modena, Bologna, Reggio EMilia, Parma, Firenze, Savona, Ferrara and the Swiss state Ticino participated in the competition. There were altogether 85 players, the age of the oldest player is 65, and the youngest is only 12.
Before the competition got started formally, all the players performed the Ba Duan Jin exercise, following Xu Hao, the president of Italian Health Qigong Organization, and other executives of the organization. At 9am, all the players entered into the stadium, with the Health Qigong music sounding throughout the room. Then, after the national anthem of Italy was played, Xu Hao announced the opening of the competition. The marvelous performance by the players won the warm applause of the audience. It was the first time for many of the audience to watch Health Qigong performance, they were attracted by it immediately, and showed great interest in this sport, excitedly asking where they can learn Health Qigong.
Commissioned by the mayor of Carpi city, Daniela Depietri, the director of the Social, Health, Home, Voluntary Association, Policies for Work, New Fragility of the municipal government, attended the opening ceremony and expressed congratulations on behalf of the municipal government.
Mr Benfenati Antonio, the director for social and promotion affairs of Italian Health Qigong, delivered an opening remark. He introduced to the players and audience about the development of Health Qigong in Italy and the progress of Italian Health Qigong Organization. In 2016, the delegation of the organization attended the 2nd China International Health Qigong Exchange & Tournament and the 2nd European Health Qigong Exchange & Tournament, and made excellent performances. Mr Benfenati(Antonio) was very proud of this achievement.
It is believed that the great success achieved in this tournament will surely help promote the vigorous development of Health Qigong in Italy.
(The content of this report is provided by Xu Hao, the president of Italian Health Qigong Organization)
