VILNIUS, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The Fifth Lithuanian Open Wushu Championship kicked off on Saturday at Vilnius, capital city of Lithuania, attracting more than 100 participants from Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Russia, Norway, Denmark and Poland to attend.
Saturday's championship sees participants compete in Taolu, Tuishou, Sanda, Qingda and Shuaijiao, including Neijiaquan, Changquan, Yongchunquan, Nanquan, Shaolingquan, Taijiquan, Sword and Cudgel, according to the organizers.
Tomas Lapinskas, president of Lithuanian Wusu Federation, told Xinhua that this year they invited professor Wu Dong from Beijing Sport University as the head judge to stress the professionalism with the youngest participant at six year old and the oldest one at the age of 65.
At the opening ceremony, Chinese ambassador to Lithuania Shen Zhifei hoped friendship and understanding between peoples will be further improved through their practice of Wushu.
"I also thank you, all the participants, all the instructors, all the coaches, and all of the others for providing us this great stage of demonstrating Chinese culture and also friendship between China and the people of Europe."
Venantas Griciunas, Lithuanian vice minister of agriculture, who was present at the event, wished all the participants a good competition and a good chance to learn from each other at the same time.
He told Xinhua that he came here not only as a fans of Wushu, also as a practitioner of Taijiquan for six years.
"Practicing Taiji works me a lot, give me relax, make me calm down and can focus on something. I wish later I will have time to practice more and join the competition in the future."
The event is organized by Lithuanian Wushu Federation jointly with Vilnius University Confucius Institute and Health City office of Vilnius.
