China is undoubtedly one of the world's sporting powerhouses right now, but watching the ongoing National Games - often billed as "China's Olympic Games" - in the northeastern province of Liaoning could leave an objective viewer with a distinctly different impression.

While the quadrennial festival should be all about sporting performance, the focus instead tends to be on the sideshows and scandals. Here's a summary of some of the main story­lines:

There was the women's seven-­a-side rugby match ­between Beijing and Shandong in which the heavily ­favored Beijing team accused the Spanish referee of being biased, and refused to play the final minutes. They stood still on the field while Shandong ran up a 71-0 score. To add to the embarrassment, there was a scuffle between coaches after the game, amid reports of racial abuse.

Next there was the Hubei tennis team who had known for months that star player Li Na would not be playing and therefore could not represent her province. But the team still included her name in its entry list so that the seedings, based on the world rankings of all the entered players, would ensure an easier draw.

Then there was a fight in the water during the women's 10-kilometer swim race. Competitive long-distance swimming can be brutal, but not so bad that the swimmers cannot finish their race, as happened in Liaoning.

One positive story to emerge was in the windsurfing competition, where Ma Jiao from ­Sichuan Province abandoned her own race to save Hao Xiumei, a fellow competitor from Liaoning Province, from drowning. While this selfless act rightly drew Ma praise from all quarters, you have to wonder where the rescue boats were.

But the most ludicrous aspect of these Games is its medal system, in which Olympic titles are converted into gold medals, which then actually count in the National Games medal table. Moreover, in soccer, basketball and volleyball, medals are awarded all the way down to ninth place. It's reminiscent of an under-9s egg-and-spoon race, where everyone gets a trophy just for crossing the line. That's fine at an early age, but a top-level sporting event should encourage excellence not mediocrity.

Similar things can, and sometimes do, happen on the global sporting stage, but here they seem to be the rule, not the exception. Until the focus gets back on the sport itself, the ­National Games will ­continue to be seen as a second-rate event, rather than "China's Olympic Games."

The author is a Beijing-based freelance writer. dreyermark@gmail.com