NAGOYA (Japan): The 20th Asian Games opened in Nagoya on Saturday with a glittering ceremony of dance and fireworks following a build-up marred by operationalgaffesandlogisticalproblems.
Five years after the Tokyo Olympics played out at empty venues due to Covid19 restrictions, Japan welcomed fans to the Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium for a curtain-raiser that was initially subdued before bursting into a festival of colour and sound.
Emperor Naruhito declared the Games open after watching the parade of 45 nations and regions at a dignitaries’ table along with International Olympic Committee boss Kirsty Coventry.
Naruhito’s visit with royal family members was accompanied by a heavy security operation. Organisers had said up to 10,000 police would be deployed for the ceremony.
‘While the world is too often divided by conflict, they [the Asiad athletes] remind us that sport remains a powerful force for peace, understanding and friendship among nations,’ Olympic Council of Asia president Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani said in a speech.
COMPLAINTS FROM ATHLETES, OFFICIALS Japan’s father-and-son duo of Shigenobu Murofushi and Koji Murofushi, both former Asian Games champions in hammer throw, jointly lit the cauldron after climbing a set of stairs at the end of the torch relay.
Organisers will hope the ceremony can draw a line under a rocky build-up laden with complaints from athletes and officials involving accommodation and transport. Japan’s reputation for precision and efficiency has been under scrutiny as the nation welcomes more than 11,000 athletes competing for 369 gold medals in a whopping 43-sport programme.
Instead of building a dedicated Games village, organisers have housed the ath-letes and officials in a mix of hotel rooms, temporary wooden containers and a cruise ship docked in the bay as a costcutting measure.
Several national team delegations, including hosts Japan, have found the arrangements below par, complaining of mix-ups and double bookings, while South Korea said the containers at Garden Pier were too cramped for their basketballers.
India’s powerful cricket board took matters into their own hands, arranging for the men’s star-studded cricket team to stay in a separate hotel due to a tight allocation of beds from organisers. Delegations have also lamented long waits for the athletes registering on arrival and have found buses turning up late or sending their athletes to the wrong venues.
The Olympic Council of Asia, which runs the quadrennial Games, acknowledged the problems on Saturday but played them down as teething difficulties.
Directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi, the opening ceremony made a low-key start, with classical music and dance on a heartshaped stage before the parade of nations which featured a delegation from reclusive North Korea.
The spectacle ramped up later though, with dancers in boiler suits marking Nagoya’s manufacturing tradition and a fireworks display closing the night.
The ceremony’s theme was ‘Harmonic Heart Beat’ intended to communicate Asian solidarity at an event often riven by geopolitical tension and historic grudges.
However, hopes for a peaceful Games have already been undermined by several incidents. Taiwan’s delegation temporarily refused to participate in their welcoming ceremony on Friday after sports minister and former Olympic champion Lee Yang was blocked from attending it.
APOLOGY OVER NATIONAL ANTHEM The South Korean men’s hockey team were upset when North Korea’s national anthem was played at the stadium beforea match instead of their own. The organisers on Saturday offered ‘deepest apologies’ for the mishap.
At their Friday contest against Bangladesh, South Korea’s players lined up for the traditional playing of the anthems, only to look bemused as North Korea’s song rang out. Organisers then played Bangladesh’s anthem and later the South Korean one, the South’s Yonhap news agency said.
‘During the men’s hockey match between South Korea and Bangladesh on Sept 18, an incorrect national anthem was mistakenly played before the match,’ the Games organising committee told AFP on Saturday.
The statement said that, on Friday, ‘officials responsible for [National Olympic Committee] relations visited the delegation of the Republic of Korea and offered their sincere apologies for the incident’.
‘We will also work to prevent a recurrence and would like to express our deepest apologies to all those affected by this matter.
While competitions for basketball, football and other sports have already started, the first gold medalwillbe won on Sunday, likely in the triathlon.
A high-class swimming competition kicks off in Tokyo on Sunday, with the programme featuring China’s 100m freestyle world-record holder Pan Zhanle and 13-year-old sensation Yu Zidi.
Apart from traditional Olympic sports, the Games will stage regional favourites kabaddi and sepak takraw along with quirky, modern events. Esports will award medals again after making its debut at Hangzhou, while teqball and ‘virtual taekwondo’ will make their first appearance at the Games.
On Sunday, Pakistan face Sri Lanka in the women’s cricket semi-final of the Games cricket competition at the Kyrogi Sports Park in Nisshin, Aichi Prefecture.
In the other semi, Bangladesh women take on India at the same venue.-Agencies