Sixth East Asian Games open in Tianjin

The sixth East Asian Games were declared open by China's vice premier Liu Yandong in the coastal city of Tianjin on Sunday.

The Tianjin Games will be the last edition of East Asian Games as the governing body of the Games had decided to transform the event to East Asian Youth Games. The first East Asian Youth Games will be held in 2019 with the date and venue yet to be decided.

The Tianjin East Asian Games will feature in 24 sports, 254 events with an entry of 2,422 athletes from nine countries and regions including China, South Korea, Mongolia, Japan, Hong Kong of China, Macao of China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Chinese Taipei and Guam.

The Chinese delegation, which took almost half of the gold medals in previous editions, fielded 516 athletes at the Tianjin Games and they will take part in all the 24 sports.

The sixth East Asian Games will run from October 6 to 15.