WorldSkills featuring 63 Chinese contenders

Sixty--three Chinese contenders-54 men and nine women-will compete in the 45th WorldSkills competition in Kazan, Russia, where opening ceremonies were held on Thursday.

It's the first time that Chinese participants will compete in all 56 events, including fashion technology, bricklaying and web technologies, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, who led the delegation.

The average age of the competitors is about 21, with 58 of them born after 1995 and five after 1990. The youngest in the Chinese delegation-Yao Jin from Jiangsu province-who will join the cloud computing project, is only 18 years old.

According to their profiles, competitors from vocational schools make up the majority of the Chinese contenders-about 35.

It's the fifth competition in which Chinese participants joined after the nation was included as one of the WorldSkills member countries in 2010.

In 2015, Chinese competitor Zeng Zhengchao won the nation's first gold medal in the welding competition during the WorldSkills competition in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Greater success was achieved by the nation's competitors during WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017.There, the 52 contenders vied in 47 projects, winning 15 gold medals and seven silver medals and earning China the top slot in the medal rankings.

Notably, Song Biao, the Chinese champion of the Industrial Mechanic Millwright project in 2017, was granted the Albert Vidal Award, the award for the best performer in the competition.

The competition, which runs through Tuesday, features 1,355 contenders from 69 countries and regions. This year's competition is expected to be the largest World-Skills competition ever held.

Tatiana Golikova, the deputy prime minister of Russia, said at a news conference on Thursday afternoon that about 250,000 spectators both from Russia-which is hosting WorldSkills for the first time-and other countries and regions are anticipated.

Simon Bartley, president of WorldSkills International, expressed his expectations for the next World-Skills competition that will be held in Shanghai in 2021. He said that the Chinese delegation will learn good lessons from its time in Kazan, and he believes greater success will be achieved by China in 2021.