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"You are my eyes! We run together. At 8 a.m. on July 26, on Guangzhou Huacheng Square, the barrier-free health escort event with the theme of "Welcoming the Paralympic Games and Gathering in the Greater Bay Area" officially started. Under the leadership of the leader, 60 special runners "held hands" in pairs and took firm steps.
Today, the 500-day countdown to the 2025 National Paralympic Games begins, and this group of special runners starts with anticipation and confidence for the Paralympic Games. Among them, there are 15 visually impaired people from the Guangzhou Barrier-free Health Sports Association, 15 friends from the Guangzhou Xinyou Service Association for the Mentally Handicapped, and 30 running volunteers.
"3, 2, 1, go!" At 8 o'clock in the morning, with the coach's crisp and neat command, the runners were full of energy and started to run around Huacheng Square from the south gate of the Second Children's Palace in Guangzhou.
Unlike the able-bodied runners, these special runners are accompanied by a runner who is connected to each other by a leash, and the two run together. "I said we were a 'marathon on a rope,' I was his eyes, and we ran and sprinted together." After the event, visually impaired runner Yang Jun and accompanying runner Lu Qimei said in an interview.
In 2015, she began to join the "Star Friends Running Group" initiated by the Guangzhou Xinyou Service Association for the Mentally Handicapped and became a running escort. "I saw a post that said, 'Would you like to take your visually impaired friend for a run?' I was very interested and signed up, and now I think it's a very meaningful thing. In the process of helping them, we also gain a lot of energy. ”
The job of a runner looks simple, but in fact, it requires very rigorous training. Lu Qimei told reporters that in order to cooperate perfectly with the visually impaired runners, the accompanying runners will also conduct blindness training, run with eye masks, experience how to walk in a blind state, and feel the feeling of running in the dark. In the accompanying run, they have to verbally remind their teammates of the road conditions and roadblocks in front of them, and also maintain a relatively synchronous running speed, which requires a high degree of tacit understanding and trust.
"I've been running with the frontrunners for almost 10 years and I'm very grateful to them. Running has made me more cheerful and confident, expanded my circle of friends, and brought a lot of changes to my life, and I will continue to persevere. Yang Jun, a visually impaired runner and president of the Guangzhou Barrier-free Sports Association, said.
In addition to the visually impaired, there are many mentally handicapped people in the running group, and Xiao Qiwen, a 26-year-old young man, is one of them. "I'm very happy to run with so many friends today, running has made my world bigger." Xiao Qiwen said that in 2018, he joined the Star Friends Companion Running Group, and ran many places with the escort volunteers, from Guangzhou, Shantou, Zhanjiang to Beijing, Hong Kong, and even abroad, to Viet Nam, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other places. He said that running has allowed him to meet many good friends, broaden his horizons and improve his self-confidence.
He is also full of expectations for the upcoming 2025 Paralympic Games. "I am very much looking forward to this competition at my doorstep, and I hope that athletes from all over the country will compete here in a higher and faster way! I will also draw some paintings in anticipation of the Paralympic Games. Xiao Qiwen said.
The reporter learned that this barrier-free health escort activity is one of the series of activities of the 500-day countdown to the Paralympic Games, aiming to promote the physical fitness and social participation of the visually impaired and mentally handicapped, and convey positive energy, solidarity and mutual assistance. During the 500-day countdown to the opening of the celebration, the Guangdong competition area will carry out a series of mass sports activities, such as barrier-free and healthy running, dryland curling promotion competition, drone exhibition, football friendly match, fun integration games, and the popularization and promotion of tennis, chess and Go events.
Guangzhou Xinyou Service Association for the Mentally Handicapped was established in 2015, and the "Star Friends Running Group" is one of the brand projects initiated by it. Since the launch of the running group, more than 300 young people with mental disabilities have participated in it, and the project has set up fixed running fields in Linjiang Avenue, Liuhua Lake, Children's Palace, Provincial Gymnasium, Industrial Avenue South Primary School and other places, and carries out regular activities every week. Among them, more than 30 young people with mental disabilities have participated in 7-8 official marathons, and all of them have finished within the race time.
From 2019 to 2024, the Xingyou Companion Running Group has participated in marathons in Guangzhou, Zhaoqing, Shaoguan, Zhuhai, Chongqing and other places for many times, and is the first marathon team for people with mental disabilities in China. At present, there are more than 20 regular sports rehabilitation training supports by Guangzhou Heart Friends Association every week, serving more than 200 people with mental disabilities every week.
Ou Yongqiang, president of Guangzhou Xinyou Service Association for the Mentally Handicapped, said that the social integration and employment of mentally handicapped patients is a difficult thing, and since the establishment of the association in 2015, it has been committed to helping mentally handicapped young people with rehabilitation training, employment and entrepreneurship. For people with mental disabilities, running can not only exercise the body, but also the regular movement of running is also in line with the characteristics of autistic people who like to repeat behaviors. Running in a group can build psychological self-confidence, build sports social relationships, provide emotional regulation, improve physical motor function, and promote social integration. So far, the association's volunteers have expanded from more than 200 people to more than 7,000 today, and more and more volunteers are joining this public welfare action.
Reporter Liu Zhuonan
Picture, video shooting|Reporter Cai Jiahong
Intern: Lin Linyi, Li Minghui
Video Clip |
Editor: Zheng Zongmin
Source: Yangcheng Evening News • Yangcheng faction