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Football
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Karate |
Sepak Takraw |
Snooker |
Taekwondo
General:
Asian Games Official Opening Today.
The 13th Asian Games will be officially opened today by His Majesty King Bhumipol of Thailand, at the Rajamangala National Stadium at 7.00 pm today. The Opening Ceremenony celebrations will be preceded by a torch run which starts at the auspicious time of 9:09 this morning, led by Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai. A total of 216 bearers, including the final duo of Ketsaraporn Suta and Somluck Khamsing, will join the relay.
The sports event have already commenced. First of the sports is Football. Round 1 of the Group preliminaries started on Nov 30 and completed yesterday. See Results. Round 2 starts tomorrow. Three events are scheduled to start today before the Official Opening, with a medal to be won today itself. These include the Women Marathon final in the Athletics Event which starts in Ayutthaya and culminates at the Thammasat Sports Complex, Bangkok and Snooker & Billiards, one event which host Thailand is hoping to bag gold.
A total of 9,469 athletes and officials from 41 countries and territories vying for honours in 36 sports and 377 gold medals, making this the largest Asian Games ever to be hosted to date. Of the 43 members of the Olympic Council of Asia, only Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia are missing out, the former due to financial problems and the latter on alleged clashes with Ramadhan and local festivals. Iraq
has been out of the OCA since the 1993 invasion of Kuwait. The Games motton this Asiad is "Friendship Beyond Boundaries"
General:
Malaysian & Laos journalists not linked to home nation.
The Mass Communication Company of Thailand, the telephone company sponsoring the Games, had linked up the venues with all countries but Malaysia and Laos. While most journalists covering the event could file their stories from the sports arenas, Malaysian and Lao journalists had to make their 2 hours journey back to their hotels for telephone connections. Games officials, caught off-guard, confirmed the Games motto "Friendship Beyond Boundaries" is correct as well for Malaysia and Laos, Thailand's boundary neighbours.
General:
Samsung offers US$100,000 prize for Asiad's Most Valued Performance.
Games Official sponsor, Samsung Electronics, sponsoring some US$9 million for this Asiad, is offering a prize money of US$100,000 for a best sports personality award to be selected from amongst the individual and team athletes. The selection will be done by vote of all journalists covering the Asian Games. The award recipient will be announced at the Closing Ceremony on Dec 20.
General:
Taiwan flags comes down on China's protests.
Thai foreign ministry spokesman Kobsak Chutikul said Chinese officials have protested that Taiwan's flags should be raised at Asian Games venues, identifying five places where the flags have be hoisted.
Thai officials hurriedly hoisted down the Taiwan flags and quickly replaced them by Olympic flags, in line with the practice of other major sporting events involving Taiwan, regarded by China as a renegade province.
Thailand follows the One China policy in its links with Taiwan and does not maintain diplomatic links with the island. It established diplomatic relations with China in 1976. Taiwan is competing in the Games as Chinese Taipei.
General:
Laos, North Korea and Cambodia apply for Aid and subsidies from host.
According to games officials, cash-strapped Laos, North Korea and Cambodia have formally applied to the Thai Government for subsidies to cover their team's costs. Laos and North Korea's requests have been agreed to and their athletes would receive free food and accommodation. In the case of Cambodia, it had paid the first instalment while applying for the subsidy, and its request was under consideration.
General:
Athletes Village tuk-tuk drivers go on a strike.
Some 150 tuk-tuks drivers went on strike for 12 hours yesterday in protest against non-payment of their wages. The tuk-tuks and their Amnat Charoen drivers had been hired by the games officials to service the Athletes Village at Bhat 300 per day and each one of them is due Bhat 10,000. A spokesman for the striking drivers said that they we also promised "good food and a nice place to stay", but most of the time they were starving, and when given food, it was not the "good food". The nice place to stay turned out to be the shoddy little houses made of aluminium in the Games Village. The tuk-tuk drivers, who are mostly from villages and generally sleep in their tuk-tuks, said through their spokesman, "we are past caring about our pathetic accommodation, we just want our money."
General:
Apologetic Deputy Prime Minister remains worried on mess-ups.
The deputy premier and chairman of the Bangkok Asian Games Organising Committee (Bagoc), Bhichai Rattakul made an apology in front of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) executives about the problems at Thammasat Rangsit's main press centre, which was open for use on Dec 3 instead of Dec 1. On the problem of insufficient drinking water for athletes (it was reported in local papers yesterday that each athlete will get only one bottle of water), Bhichai said, "This is another problem that bothers me. It will be tackled immediately as well."
Included in his main worries is tackling the possible traffic congestion, when some 10,000 people will gather at the Rajmangala Stadium this evening to witness the opening ceremony. "I'm sure there will be traffic congestion. So I would like to request people to use shuttle buses provided by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration instead of driving their cars," he said.
As for possible riots -- which nearly happened when thousands of fans tried to break into the stadium during the grand rehearsal last Tuesday -- the deputy prime minister said he had already cautioned the security division to be very careful and urged them to be prepared for any untoward incident on Sunday. Snipers have also been stationed at all games venues as a precaution against terrorism.
General:
Filipino cagers wait-out at the airport to clear baggage/customs.
In another of the on-going woes, there was a mix-up in claiming luggage at the Don Muang International Airport. Someone ferried the bags of 38 Filipino delegates, including 22 from the basketball contingent, to a carousel for another flight. Luckily, Filipino Centennial team manager Joaqui Trillo set things straight. The wait took 1 1/2 hours. Trillo again came to the rescue when Asian Games welcomers collected the delegates' customs passes to surrender to immigration officials only to be later told that they had to be turned over individually. Trillo explained the delegates had nothing to declare and officials finally agreed to take the customs passes as a group.
Brushing aside the tiring wait, Cone aid the Philippines has the strongest chances ever to regain the Asiad basketball gold medal this year (after 26 years). North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Cambodia, Lebanon, Mongolia, and Jordan have backed out of the cage tilt, leaving only 12 contenders split into four brackets of three each. The Philippines is in Group D with Kazakhastan and Kyrgystan. The Centennials debut against the Kazakhs on Tuesday. China are the favorites.
General:
FIFA chief praises Bagoc praised organisation effort in trying times.
Worawi Makudi, secretary general of the Football Association of Thailand (FAT) said that Joseph Blatter, president of the Federation Internationl de Football Association (Fifa) has praised the Bangkok Asian Games Organising Committee (Bagoc) and the Thailand government for having successfully prepared for the Asiad. He was also quoted as saying that great deal of extra work was put in by the organisers due to withdrawals of some teams, late entries and late submission of players' lists.
Athletics:
Malaysia' Yufang walk for an Asiad medal.
Coach Wang Lin declared here yesterday, that Malaysia's 22-year old Yufang will make good in the 10km walk race in the Asiad. Yufang, who finished fourth in the Asian Track and Field (ATF) championships in Japan in July, has a personal best of 43:25.00, clocked in a competition in Germany early this year, which is a Malaysian national record, and makes her the top-ranked walker in Asia.
China's Li Yuxin won the gold in 46:41.00 followed by Japan's duo of Rie Mitsumori and Yuka Mitsumori in 46:52.00 and 47:01.00 respectively.
Yufang had a disappointing outcome in the september Commonwealth Games, where she was disqualified for "floating". Coach Wang Lin asserts that this shortcoming has ben corrected.
Athletics:
Favorite Marathon runner Takahashi runs today.
Japan's Naoko Takahashi is the favorite in todya's Marathon event. She is likely to lift the Asian Games' first gold medal, except that he will be running into the unknown. Takahashi has not been able to do any homework on her opponents and does not know how she will react to the Bangkok heat, humidity and traffic pollution or the fact they will be running against oncoming traffic.
Her main competition, apart from teammate Tomoko Kai, will come from two Chinese runners, Wang Yanfang and Pan Jinhong, South Korea's Kim Chang. Takahashi's coach Yoshio Koide, referring to the hot, humid conditions at the marathon route, said," Every runner will be seven or eight minutes slower because of the hot conditions."
Boxing:
Filipino fighter Canoy predicts downing Thai ace Kamsing.
Phillipines Eric Canoy, despite the odds, is not fazed at meeting Thai boxing hero Somluck Kamsing. Canoy, who fought against Kamsing thrice and lost twice, predicts the next meet between them will be Kamsing's downfall. "I'll do what it takes to whip Kamsing," he said.
Kamsing, Thailand's only gold medallist ever, bagged the gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics in the featherweight category. In reward, the Thai Government paid a large tax-exempt cash bonus, a brand-new BMW 3251, a pick-up truck, and a gold dinosaur statue. In addition, he was to receive a staggered pension for the rest of his life. Kamsing, under heavy pressure to bag a gold this Asiad, does not consider Canoy to be of any threat. "My most formidable opponent is from Uzbekistan. He's good but I've beaten him twice and I'm sure I can beat him again." making probable reference to Olympic veteran Ulugbek Ibragimov. Canoy reiterated that if Kamsing isn't taking Canoy seriously, the Thai may be in for a surprise.
Kamsing injured an ankle in training while sparring with a Pakistani boxer last Sunday, bringing tears to a lot of Thai people -- Kamsing stars in popular soap operas and is one of Thailand's most idolised sporting sons. Kamsing reassured his fans that he will be all right before the start of the Games. Taweep Juntararot, technical adviser to Thailand's boxing squad at the Asian Games, said, "We have seven boxers ranked in the top five of their respective divisions in the AIBA (International Amateur Boxing Association) rankings. If its a good draw for us, we could possibly win five gold medals. If the draw is not so good for us, we would be happy with three gold medals. I expect only three countries to dominate -- Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Thailand." The weigh-in for the games in on Monday.
Boxing:
Games officials investigating inclusion of pro in Uzbekistan team.
Ruslan Chagaev was suspended for 18 months by the world governing body for taking part in two professional fights in Chicago in 1997, has been included in Uzbekistan's team. The International Amateur Boxing Association (Aiba) found Chagaev guilty in January this year, and promptly banned him and stripped him of the gold medal he won in the 1997 World Championships 91kgm division.
Sakchye Tapsuwan, Aiba's vice president in Asia and one of the Asian Games boxing officials, said Chagaev's case will be discussed at a manager's meeting on Sunday. "If there is sufficient evidence and documentation that shows he has been suspended, then he will be excluded from the draw,'' Sakchye said
Boxing:
Filipino Pacquiao stops Chatchai in 8th, wrests WBC titl.
Manny Pacquiao became the second Filipino world boxing champion in five days, stopping Thai legend Chatchai Sasakul in the eighth round to wrest the World Boxing Council flyweight title in front of an unwelcoming crowd in Phanburi, Thailand last Friday. The victory, Pacquiao's 24th (including 15 KOs) against one defeat, came five days after Luisito Espinosa successfully defended his World Boxing Council featherweight title in a one-sided two-round demolition of American Kennedy McKinney in Indio, California last Sunday. For Chatchai, the loss was his second in 35 fights.
Cycling:
Thailand may skip cycling pursuit event.
With only nine days to go before the four-kilometre cycling pursuit competition, the Thai team has announced that it may not compete as the athletes aren't yet ready for the event. The team was to be represented by Thongchai Wangerdjaingam, Panupong Maneepong, Jirasak Nontakhaw, Junya Juisakul, Montree Chaiprasit and Kriangsak Butwiset
Thailand's top cyclist and medal hopeful Thongchai Wangerdjaingam, was recently dropped by the Amateur Cycling Association of Thailand (Acat) from the cycling pursuit event so that he could concentrate on the 50-km time trial at the Asiad. But for Panupong Meneepong, the rest of the young team are "inexperienced and not tough enough", said Seree Trairu, sport manager and Acat adviser. Gen Youthana Kumdee, Acat president, has said, "I have always thought that our national team cyclists should be selected and taught when they are young," pushing for the pursuit event not to be skipped.
Meanwhile, foreign cyclists, including from favourites Kazakhstan, South Korea and Japan, are practising at the competition venue, the velodrome in Hua Mark. Although they like the venue, they seem to be having problems with the track surface and the weather. For China's pursuit team member, Shi Guijun, it was the heat.
Cycling:
Kazkh Alex Nodorenko wins fourth stage of the Tour of Johor.
Alex Nadorenko of Kazkhstan swept to victory in the fourth stage of the 111 km six-day Tour of Johor championship Friday. He clocked in a total time of 2hrs 43.22. The overall leaders upto the fourth stage are the Kazakhstan, followed by Indonesia and Uzbekistan.
The Asiad-bound Kazakh team of Valery Titov, Sergei Belousov, Vadon Kravchenko and Dimitri Fofonov, are the overall leaders upto the fourth stage at a total time of 19hrs 49.55, followed by Indonesia and Uzbekistan. Malaysia's Nor Affendy, another hot prospect at the Asiad, consoled himself saying, "I must admit that I just could not match Alex in the final sprint to the line. He was stronger, faster and deserved to win."
Two more stages of the six-stage Tour of Johor Open Championship remain. remain. The 50km Segamat-Tangkak individual time trial is scheduled for Saturday, and the 172km Muar-Pontian route for Sunday. The championship is well followed as it be the last competition before the Asiad.
Football:
Uzbekistan makes record 15-0 victory over Mongolia.
Defending champions Uzbekistan waltzed into the second round of the Asian Games soccer tournament with a record 15-0 victory over hapless Mongolia on Saturday. Uzbekistan topped their group by scoring more against the Mongolians than Kuwait, who emerged with a 11-0 win over Mongolia -- then an Asian Games record which eclipsed China's 7-1 win over India in the 1974 Tehran Games.
Kuwait and Uzbekistan drew 3-3 last Thursday, putting Uzbek at the top of its group pool. By topping the group, the Uzbeks are now placed in a tougher looking second round line-up. To get into the quarter-final knockout stage, the Uzbeks will have to win one of the top two places in a second round group. See Second Round Pool Table and match fixtures.
Football:
First round results, and second round groupings & schedule.
Iran, parading most of their World Cup team, also came out on top of their first round group with a 6-1 win over minnows Laos which was not as easy as the final scoreline suggested. Qatar also moved through with a 4-0 win over the Maldives with all four goals coming from Mohammed Salem Al Kawar, while Uzbekistan whipped Mongolia 15-0.
With these 3 matches, Round 1 matches are completed. The qualifiers for Round 2 are the teams placed first and second in their respective pool table. See Round 1 pool tables. The qualifiers and grouping for Round 2 are as follows:
Group 1: Turkmenistan, India, North Korea, Uzbekistan
Group 2: South Korea, Japan, UAE, Kuwait
Group 3: China, Tajikistan, Oman, Iran
Group 4: Lebanon, Qatar, Thailand, Kazakhstan
Football:
Thai Women Football team goalkeeper down with appendicitis.
Thailand Women soccer team goalkeeper Watcharee Lerkprane was admitted to hospital yesterday after being struck down by appendicitis. This will mean that Lerkprane will miss the Asiad, with only two days remaining before the start of the Women football tournament. The likely replacement is Dechophon Sungtong. Thailand is drawn together with Japan, South Korea and Vietnam. Team coach Pol Col Pisan Chuladilok said the the Thai team will be playing a 4-4-2 formation (unlike the Men Football, where it played a 3-5-2 formation). He expects a draw in the matches against Japan and South Korea, and a win against Vietnam, the Asian Tiger cup champ.
Gymnastics:
China out to repeat their gold medal performance, Japan looking one.
China, which recently replaced its star world champion Lu Yufu (who is down with a knee injury) with East Asian Games' triple gold medallist Zhao Sheng, is poised to repeat its performance at the Hiroshima Asian Games.
Leading the squad for Monday's men's team final will be two times parallel bars world champion Zhang Jingjin. China's head coach Huang Yubing said he was confident of hauling eight to 10 golds out of a total of 17 in men's and women's artistic and women's rhythmic gymnastics.
Japanese gymnastics team coach Noritoshi Hirata is confident his team will at least one gold either through Sukahara Nagoya or Yoshihiro Saito, who finished third and fourth respectively, at last year's World Championship in Lausanne, Switzerland. Tsukahara's speciality is floor exercises and parallel bars. The gymnastics competition will start from Monday from 2 pm to 7 pm at Hall 3, 4 in the Muang Thong Thani Sports Complex (MSC).
Karate:
Pint-sized Malaysian hope for Karate gold.
Malaysia's karate exponent, Lim Lee Lee, said she wants to be the first Malaysian women to bag a Karate medal in the Asian Games. The pint-sized 24-year old said she intends to remain calm in facing rivals from favorites Japan and Korean. Winning is not new to Lee Lee. She was the Jakarta SEA Games silver medallist when she was 13, bagged a gold and a bronze in the Asian Junior Championships in Kuala Lumpur in 1993, and the silver at last year's Asian Championship in Macau.
Apart from Lee Lee, the others in the team are Ng Chai Lin and S. Premala. The men are led by P. Arivalagan, R. Puvaneswaran, C. Muralitharan, R. Muniandy and S. Suresh Rao. The Malaysian squad have undergone six-months intensive training earlier, and are now in final training before leaving for Bangkok on Dec 13.
Sepak Takraw:
Malaysian coach confident of team gold.
Malaysian coach Azizuddin Khan is confident of his team can bag at least a gold out of the six gold medals at stake. He said Malaysia has been the undisputed kingpins in the inter-regu events. In fact, since takraw's introduction in the Games in 1990, Malaysia had won all three gold medals offered, pushing traditional rivals Thailand to the sidelines in two consecutive Asian Games. This is depite the fact that Thailand has won the SEA Games the last three times.
This Asiad could be different however, since Malaysia's veteran team members Nordin Sabaruddin, Abdul Malik Shamsudin, Rehan Mat Din and Ahmad Jais Baharom have retired. Interestingly, Thailand's ace smasher Kriengkrai Mutalai is coming out of retirement to ensure that Thailand wins the Asiad for the first time.
Given the recent performance, Thailand are the favorites -- and are under heavy pressure to win the Asiad. This may work in Malaysia's favor. "We are the underdogs and with less pressure, we hope to produce a winning performance," Azizuddin said. The Malaysian team will include Iskandar Arshad and Zabidi (killer) Sharif, who were part of the gold medal winning regu in Hiroshima.
Snooker:
The Snooker & Billiards sports event starts today.
The Snooker & Billiards event kicks off today, with Thailand's James Wattana, Hong Kong's world amateur and junior champion Marcus Fu, Shaukat Ali and Malaysia's Sammy Chong. Wattana, Fu, Ali and Sammy are seeded first, second, third and fourth at the Games.
Wattana, the world No 15, will take time off from the Asiad, to take part in the match against Paul Davies, the world No 41, for a place in the last 16 at the Irish Open in Dublin. Wattana badly needs to win his first match. He has lost in the opening rounds of the first two ranking events this season, the Grand Prix and UK championship, forcing him down to No 27 in the latest provisional ranking calculations. Fu is ranked 44th while Ali is at No. 46.
Taekwondo:
Filipino coach confident of bagging several medals.
Philippine Taekwondo Association president Sung Chon Hong expressed optimism regarding his 12-man team's campaign to bring home several medals in the Asian Games. Crucial is the final bracket format in which an opponent is designated by drawing of lots. "If we get lucky, we can avoid taking on the top countries like Korea, Taiwan, and Iran in the early rounds. That will definitely boost our chances of getting more golds," explained Hong.
Hong's optimism comes from having world class jins in the squad: Roberto Cruz, Donald David Geisler, Alvin Taraya, Eva Marie Ditan, Isabel Sarah de Leon, and Ma. Nelia Sy all boast of silver medal finishes in the World Taekwondo championships, while the rest have managed to capture medals in the SEA games or finished in the top 8 of the World championships. The other squad members are Rodolfo Abratique, Walter Dean Vargas, Alessandro Lubiano, Marites Javier, Margarita Maria, and Estela Bonifacio having captured medals in the SEA games or finished in the top 8 of the World championships.
Meanwhile, Malaysia's hope Soo Lai Yen, the recent Commonwealth Games gold medallist in the featherweight category, has not fully recovered from her depressed state after losing in a local Inter-Club taekwondo championships for a bronze. Malaysia is fielding Lee Wan Yuen, Asian bronze medallist S. Sarawanan (featherweight), and Jakarta SEA Games gold medallist Malcolm Joseph Joe (bantamweight). Malaysia bagged three bronze at the Hiroshima Asian Games in 1994.
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