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