Incheon, South Korea : Participants and spectators were gathering Friday for a lavish Asian Games opening ceremony featuring 10,000 athletes, a fireworks display and performances by "Gangnam Style" singer PSY and other local pop stars.
VIPs including International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach were attending the four-hour extravaganza at the 60,000-seat Asiad Main Stadium in the port city of Incheon west of the capital Seoul. Organizers are hoping the event will boost interest and lagging ticket sales for the two-week continental competition that features athletes from 45 nations and regions stretching from Jordan to Japan.
They will compete in 42 sports, including eight, such as bowling, cricket and squash, that aren't part of the Olympic program. The games are an important test for many young athletes ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics. Sporting powerhouse China is fielding the largest team of almost 900 athletes, 68 percent of whom are taking part in the Asiad for the first time. Brunei has the smallest team at just 11 athletes.
A highlight of the games will be the intense competition starting Sunday between China's Olympic gold champion swimmer Sun Yang and his chief rival, Park Tae-hwan of South Korea.
The two are due to clash in the 200-, 400-, and 1,500-meter freestyle events. Although Park beat Sun for the gold in the 200 and 400 at the last Asian Games four years ago, Sun holds the world titles in those events, along with two golds, one silver and one bronze won at the 2012 London Olympics, where he became the first Chinese man to win an individual Olympic swimming gold. The pair tied for silver in the 200 in London.
Park skipped last year's worlds but showed he was on-form by setting the fastest time of the year in the 400 at last month's Pan Pacific Championships in Australia.
Prior to the opening ceremony, the Olympic Council of Asia held a meeting of its executive board to discuss the awarding of the next Asian Games in 2018 to Indonesia. That bid came about after Vietnam relinquished its hosting rights over the massive expense involved. It will be officially approved at a meeting of the OCA'S General Assembly on Saturday.
Council President Sheik Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah said Indonesia already had much of the infrastructure in place to hold the games and had already planned on building additional facilities before making its offer.
Sheik Ahmad also indicated there were no hard feelings toward Vietnam, which has suffered badly from the global economic crisis. "For that they were honest and we really appreciate that they announced it early," the Sheik said.
He said the OCA was seeking to attract more long-term commercial sponsors to cover 60-70 percent of transport, security and other operating costs of running the games, allowing the hosts to turn a profit.
"We're trying to find a balance between income and expenditure," the sheik said.
