Asian Games begin tomorrow

The wait is over. The 20th Asian Games officially get underway in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, on Saturday (today). As many as 1700 athletes and officials from 45 countries will feature in these Games in 43 sports disciplines. However organizers are taking an unconventional approach to accommodation by avoiding a formal athletes’ village. Instead, athletes and officials will stay in hotels, converted containers and the Costa Serena, an Italian cruise ship that will serve as a floating village with space for up to 5,000 people. The decision is aimed at controlling costs after billions of dollars were spent on the Tokyo Olympics, which were postponed from 2020 to 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nagoya, Japan’s third-largest metropolitan area after Tokyo and Osaka, is an industrial city on the Pacific coast with a population of about 9.5 million in its wider metropolitan area. The Games will bring together 45 countries and regions, including North Korea, which is sending about 100 athletes after skipping the Tokyo Olympics. An Olympic Council of Asia refugee team will also compete. Japan is sending about 900 athletes, the largest delegation, followed by China with 815 and Hong Kong with about 580. China dominated the 2023 Games, winning 201 gold medals, ahead of Japan with 52 and South Korea with 42. Massive criticism: The Asian Games on Friday were facing more accusations of poor organisation with a world champion gymnast "totally exhausted", the public drafted in to rescue stranded athletes and South Korea lodging a complaint about a Japanese warlord. The continent's premier sporting spectacle opens in Nagoya and Aichi prefecture on Saturday, but the build-up has been soured by several issues. That includes a shortage of rooms for the more than 17,000 athletes and officials, a bigger number than the Olympics. Some teams have also criticised the quality of the accommodation, including beds that are too short. To save money there is no athletes' village, organisers instead putting competitors in hotels, temporary cabins and on a cruise ship. Organisers say the accommodation is safe, cost-effective and comfortable. Chinese gymnast Zhang Boheng, who won two silver medals at the Paris Olympics and has two world championship titles to his name, said he and some of his team-mates were left waiting for six hours after landing on Wednesday. "I'm totally exhausted," he said in a video published Thursday and shared widely on Chinese social media. "I didn't expect that after breakfast at 7:00 am the next time I could eat would be close to 7:00 pm," the 26-year-old said. He said the wait was caused by registration and paperwork, before heading to the cruise ship where 4,000 Games participants will be housed in Nagoya's port area. But when they arrived at the ship, he said heavy rain prevented them from boarding. "A whole day was basically wasted like this," added Zhang. "In the end we really couldn't take it any more so we decided to book rooms at a hotel to rest." The video has since been taken down but Chinese state media said that other Chinese athletes also faced travel delays upon arrival. Beijing's consulate in Nagoya contacted Chinese citizens in the area to give the badminton team lifts after issues with a shuttle bus and a shortage of public transport tickets, Xinhua reported. Chinese social media users applauded athletes, including table tennis star Sun Yingsha, for stretching and exercising at the airport. The hashtag "Asian Games absurd" has since been viewed more than 94 million times on Weibo. India's team had similar delays at the airport. "There was an issue in getting accreditation for athletes at the airport during immigration. There were long queues with a lot of other nations there," India's chef de mission and Indian Olympic Association (IOA) treasurer Sahdev Yadav told AFP. "But these things happen and we have got everything sorted. He added: "These are all teething problems and our focus is now on performance." South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that some of the country's athletes waited at the airport for more than five hours on Thursday. "We are aware of the situation including reports that athletes have had to wait for hours and we are doing our best to handle it," a Korean Sport and Olympic Committee (KSOC) official told AFP. Also on Friday, the KSOC said it had filed a complaint with Games organisers for featuring a Japanese warlord at a welcoming ceremony. The event on Tuesday included a person dressed as Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who led Japan's invasions of Korea in 1592-1598, and the ceremony prompted a backlash in South Korea. Historical issues are sensitive between South Korea and Japan, with Hideyoshi's invasion a significant episode in Korean history and Korea under Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945. Meanwhile Asia's Olympic chief said Friday that he wished the Asian Games in Japan had an athletes' village and hinted that future editions of the multisport event could be even bigger. "We wish that we have an athlete village, number one, but number two we also have to be flexible," he said. "We need to listen also to the organiser, to the host, how they would look for the future, after the Games, after the closing ceremony. "It's very easy, you can insist on the athlete village, and then you build the athlete village, you spend an amount of money but then you need to see what's going to happen after the Games," he added. South Korean officials said earlier this week that there was "a serious shortage of accommodation" at the Games. Officials from the Philippines said they had resorted to Airbnb. Al-Musallam said that "every athlete, every official, every coach has accommodation". "There is no single accredited person without accommodation," he added. Local organisers initially expected 15,000 athletes and officials and argued last month that they had "neither the manpower nor the budget" to deal with ballooning numbers. Women cricket: India and Sri Lanka women powered into the Asian Games cricket semi-finals on Friday with dominant quarter-final wins, while Pakistan men’s team set to begin preparations for their own campaign. India women on Friday demolished Japan women by eight wickets in their Asian Games event quarter-final, racing to their modest target in just five overs to book their place in the semi-finals in Nisshin. Chasing 58 for victory after Japan were bowled out for 57 in 19.5 overs, India made light work of the chase as opener Shafali Verma smashed an unbeaten 40 from only 15 balls. Verma struck six fours and two sixes in a breathtaking assault. Richa Ghosh added an unbeaten 12 from six balls, including two fours, as India reached 59 for two with 90 balls to spare. Japan made a cautious start after being sent in to bat and struggled to build momentum against India's disciplined attack. Ayaka Kato-Stafford top-scored for Japan with 25 from 47 balls, but the innings never gathered pace. Haruna Iwasaki contributed 10 while the remaining batters failed to reach double figures. India's Shree Charani was the standout bowler, taking four wickets for ten runs from her four overs. Shafali also made an impact with the ball, claiming two wickets for 13 runs, while Deepti Sharma and Shreyanka Patil took one each. Japan lost wickets regularly after reaching 24 for two, slipping to 46 for four before collapsing to 57 all out in the final over. Earlier in the third quarter-final at the same venue Sri Lanka demolished Malaysia by 86 runs thanks to a blistering fifty from captain Chamari Athapaththu. Athapaththu smashed 63 from 37 balls, including seven fours and three sixes, as Sri Lanka posted 160 for four after electing to bat. Kavisha Dilhari added an unbeaten 44 from 27 balls, while Harshitha Samarawickrama struck 25 from 18 to keep the scoreboard moving. Malaysia struggled in reply, finishing at 74 for seven from their 20 overs. Winifred Duraisingam top-scored with 28 from 47 balls, while Mahirah Izzati Ismail made 24. Sri Lanka's bowlers kept Malaysia under constant pressure, with Dilhari taking two wickets for four runs and Mithali Ayodhya claiming two for 15. Athapaththu also chipped in with two wickets for three runs. Pakistan men cricket: Pakistan’s men’s cricket team will kick-start their training at Karachi on Sunday. The Green-shirts have been directly placed in the quarter-finals along with holders India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Pakistan will be fielding a heavy 246-memebr contingent in 23 sports disciplines in these Games. So far squads of soft tennis, women cricket, squash, table tennis, rowing, swimming, kabaddi, boxing, equestrian, wushu, triathlon and hockey have arrived in Japan. However it is not yet known how many athletes and officials will represent Pakistan during the opening ceremony which will be held on Saturday. “We will soon get a final list from the organisers,” a senior official of Pakistan contingent told The Express Tribune from Nagoya. Pakistan’s squads leave via Thai Airways and Qatar Airways and a team normally takes 30 to 34 hours to reach Japan. Squash star Noor Zaman and Pakistan women cricket team captain Fatima Sana will lead Pakistan’s contingent as flag-bearers. Soft Tennis: In soft tennis Pakistan had a disappointing start as both their men’s and women’s teams failed to win even a single match on the opening day of the Asian Games on Friday. Pakistan men’s side lost with identical score 3-0 in their matches against Philippines, Japan and Cambodia. Meanwhile Pakistan women also went 3-0 down to Korea, Japan and Cambodia. With input from AFP.