CHENGDU: China swept two gold medals in breaking on Sunday while Zhang Hao and Zhu Siyi added two more when they reigned supreme in the roller sports event on the final day of The World Games as the hosts topped both the gold and overall medal tables for the first time.
China has achieved its best-ever performance at the global showpiece, China’s delegation officials announced on Sunday.
China’s 321 athletes competed in 152 events across 28 sports, capturing 36 gold, 17 silver and 11 bronze medals. The tally marks the country’s best record since it began participating in The World Games, said Zhang Xin, deputy head of the delegation, at a press conference.
Held from Aug 7 to 17 under the slogan “Boundless Sports, Countless Wonders,” this year’s Games was the first to take place on the Chinese mainland. China sent a 489-member delegation, its largest in the event’s history.
“China won gold medals in 18 sports, 45 athletes stood on top of the podium, and broke two world records,” Zhang said, adding, “10 Chinese para-athletes showed their quality of tenacious, winning five golds and one silver at the Games.”
In the breaking event at the Chengbei Gymnasium, China’s Guo Pu and Qi Xiangyu claimed the women’s and men’s titles, respectively.
The men’s semi-finals featured three Japanese dancers and Xiangyu — also known as Lithe-ing — as the lone Chinese.
The 20-year-old defeated Hiroto Ono (B-Boy Hiro10) before overcoming Isshin Hishikawa (B-Boy Issin) in the final, with the home crowd on their feet throughout the contest, cheering passionately for the local favorite.
In the women’s event, China showed even greater dominance as Guo Pu, whose stage name is B-Girl Royal, faced her national team-mate Liu Qingyi (B-Girl 671) in the final, winning in three rounds to claim the gold.
It was only the second time that breaking featured at a World Games.
Despite breaking’s absence from the Los Angeles 2028 after making its Olympic debut in Paris, the sport will continue to feature at major multi-sport events such as The World Games, the Asian Games and the Youth Olympic Games.
Meanwhile in the roller sports competitions, the 20-year-old Zhang, fresh from winning men’s speed slalom gold on Saturday, celebrated his second championship at the Games. Italy’s Valerio Degli Agostini took silver, while China’s Wang Yuxuan earned bronze.
In the women’s classic slalom, Zhu topped the podium ahead of team-mate Liu Jiaxin, who earned silver. Spain’s Laura Oria Albelda claimed bronze.
Elsewhere on Sunday, defending champion Mexico scored a last-second touchdown to edge the United States 26-21 in the women’s flag football. Canada beat Austria 38-20 in the bronze medal game.
Earlier, United States won their fourth consecutive softball title as they defeated Chinese Taipei 5-0 in the final behind a shutout performance by Megan Faraimo.
In the powerboating men’s MotoSurf event, Czech Republic’s Lukas Zahorsky bagged the gold ahead of home hopes Zhang Maozhu and bronze medallists Feng Zhanghao.
RECORD PODIUM FINISHES
Athletes from a record 83 countries and regions reached the podium at the multi-nation event, the highest medal-winning participation in the event’s history.
Chen Zhi, deputy director of the Games Executive Committee’s Department of Sports Competition and Anti-doping, said 18 new world records were set in Chengdu, while athletes from 55 countries and regions won gold medals.
Pakistan participated in squash and snooker competitions with youngster Noor Zaman finishing runner up in the plate division while cueist Mohammad Asif lost his bronze medal match.
The Games drew unprecedented participation, with 6,679 athletes, team officials and technical officials from 116 countries and regions, according to Xu Xingguo, executive vice chairman of the organising committee.
More than 220,000 tickets were sold, with sessions in gymnastics, muaythai and wushu selling out.
Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2025
