Chinese triumph against all the odds

NOTHING focuses the mind of a sports journalist than the romantic story of somebody facing odds stacked so unfairly against them that victory seems impossible.

Somehow, by hook or by crook or pure will, they manage it. This past week has been full of those stories, each athlete battling unfair obstacles just to get here.

As an abiding image of the World Games, the emotional scenes on Belfield’s basketball court after China took the gold in the unified discipline will take some beating. This was a basketball team who after years of training for these games, faced weeks and months of uncertainty as to whether they would actually get in.