Athletes face shutout from Asiad ceremony<\/p>\n
BANGKOK (Agencies): More than half the athletes competing at
\nthe Asian Games will be shut out of Sunday's opening ceremony in
\nBangkok.<\/p>\n
The Bangkok Asian Games Organizing Committee (BAGOC) announced
\nthat a maximum of 80 athletes and officials from each delegation
\nwill be allowed to march at the ceremony.<\/p>\n
BAGOC spokeswoman Valerie McKenzie said this will be the first
\nGames ceremony to allow athletes and officials to sit in the
\nstadium to watch the extravaganza after they've paraded around
\nthe track.<\/p>\n
As a result, only 3,500 seats have been allocated for
\ndelegation representatives.<\/p>\n
\"At the moment, we have limited it to 80 for each delegation,
\nand that includes both athletes and officials,\" said McKenzie.
\n\"But there will be a quota to compensate for the smaller
\ncountries, like Nepal, who do have fewer than 80 in their whole
\ndelegation.<\/p>\n
\"It will be decided on a pro-rata system.\"<\/p>\n
McKenzie said the decision was made last week to limit the
\nnumbers taking part in the opening ceremony.<\/p>\n
She said that as of Friday, BAGOC was expecting 9,752
\nrepresentatives from 41 countries, of which 6,888 were athletes.
\nThe number of competitors is some 2,000 fewer than that
\noriginally hoped for as teams were hit by economic hard times.<\/p>\n
\"Of course, some of the bigger countries will be disappointed
\nbut they've known about it for some time,\" she said.<\/p>\n
McKenzie said the quotas for teams would be fixed by Saturday.<\/p>\n
China, meanwhile, had its first off-the-field Asian Games
\nvictory over Chinese Taipei when host Thailand decided Taipei's
\nOlympic flag, but not national flag, could fly at sports arenas
\nduring the event.<\/p>\n
A Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman said the action was taken
\nafter Beijing formally complained in a letter to the ministry
\nthat Taiwan's national flag, without the mandatory Olympic rings
\non it, had been sighted at a number of venues two days before the
\nstart of the Games.<\/p>\n
Under an Olympic agreement that allows both Taipei and China,
\nwhich regards Taiwan as a renegade province, to compete in the
\nGames, Taiwan's national flag does not fly and the Olympic anthem
\nis played, rather that its own anthem.<\/p>\n
At opening and closing ceremonies, Taiwan marches under the
\nname Chinese Taipei and carrying a flag with the Olympic rings on
\nit.<\/p>\n
Major absentees<\/p>\n
But there was also bad news for China as world champion
\ngymnast Lu Yufu pulled out because of a knee injury which has
\nalso put his appearance at the Sydney Olympics in doubt.<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old member of the 1997 world champion team tore a
\nknee ligament landing from a vaulting horse on Wednesday, a team
\nofficial said.<\/p>\n
The vault is his leading event and he was also China's top
\nhope in the floor exercises, according to head coach Huang
\nYubing.<\/p>\n
Huang rated Lu as the leading gymnast in the world in his
\nspeciality and said the injury was a serious blow ahead of the
\nOlympics.<\/p>\n
\"Without Lu we'll still win eight to 10 gold medals here,\"
\nsaid Huang. \"What I'm really worried about is whether he could
\nrecover in time for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.\"<\/p>\n
Zhao Sheng was to fly from Beijing on Saturday to replace Lu.<\/p>\n
Injury also forced India's gold medal hopeful in tennis
\nLeander Paes to withdraw.<\/p>\n
\"I am out, I am not going to Bangkok,\" Paes told AFP from his
\nbase in Florida where he is recovering from the ankle injury
\nsustained during the world doubles championships last month.<\/p>\n
\"I was dying to go to Bangkok but my doctor here said that
\nthere was no way I could resume playing tennis before December
\n9,\" said the 25-year-old who won the Olympic bronze in Atlanta.<\/p>\n
Asia's top-ranked player at 91 in the world, was eying three
\ngolds in the team, singles and doubles events.<\/p>\n
He won the team and doubles golds at the last Asian Games in
\nHiroshima four years ago, but lost in the singles semifinal.<\/p>\n
Paes' absence means his doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathy will
\nassume added responsibility.<\/p>\n
Bhupathy will team up with Syed Fazaluddin in the team and
\ndoubles events. The pair helped India win the Asia Cup in New
\nDelhi last month.<\/p>",
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