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| Monday, 14 October 2002 |
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Asian sporting extravaganza ends DINESH WEERAWANSA reporting from South Korea BUSAN, Sunday - The curtain will come down on the Asian sporting extravaganza as the largest ever Asian Games conclude here with a spectacular closing ceremony at the Main Sajik Stadium here tomorrow (14) night. The 14th Asian Games in Busan is the largest ever in the 51-year-old Games history with over 9,900 participants from 44 countries making their presence felt in this beautiful harbor city, the second largest in South Korea after the capital Seoul, some 450 km off here. The Busan Asian Games Organising Committee (BAGOC) has made grand arrangements for Monday's two-hour long closing ceremony, which concludes the highly successful Asian version of Olympics. A total of 38 sports were conducted in the Busan Metropolitan City and adjoining Ulsan Metropolitan City, Changwon City, Masan City and Yangsan city. A capacity crowd is expected to pack the Asiad Main Sajik Stadium to catch the glamour and action of the closing ceremony. The winners of men's marathon is due to enter the main stadium, shortly before the commencement of the closing ceremony. The pre-opening ceremony show would last 15 minutes before the main 120-minute official ceremony, which will depict the Korean culture, traditions, their sporting affiliation, Asian culture and the Asian gateway to the rest of the world. "One Asia and global Busan" has been the slogan of the Busan Games, during which the sportsmen and women from all over the continent showed the 'Power of Asia'. Monday (14) - the final day of the 14th Asian Games, will only have seven gold medals to be decided - one in athletics, two in basketball, three in badminton and one in equestrian. The solitary athletic medal on the offing will be the men's marathon, which will commence at 3 p.m. tomorrow and ends at the Main Sajik Stadium by the start of the opening ceremony. Sri Lanka's Sujith Makavitage finished 12th out of 13 competitors in the final rankings of the men's taijiquan two events combined final of the Asian Games wushu competiton here. He totaled 17.25 points, way behind the Korean gold medallist Seong Chan Yang, who had an aggregate of 18.88. The silver and bronze medals went to Ming Shu Chan (18.83 - Taiwan) and Bobby Co (18.65 - Philippines) respectively. Hosts South Korea and China will figure in two basketball finals tomorrow (14). The women's final between the two teams at 1 pm at Sajik gymnasium, will be followed by the men's final from the same two countries. In the men's basketball tournament semi-finals worked off last night, South Korea beat Philippines 69-68 in a thriller while China had a convincing 131-62 victory against Kazakhstan. The two semi-finals in the women's tournament had almost identical score lines as China beat Japan 92-69 while South Korea emerged victorious against Taiwan 94-68. Meanwhile, the President of the BAGOC, Chung Soon-taek and Secretary General of BAGOC Baek Gi-moon attended the funeral of the late Oh In-soo, a 43-year-old Asian Games volunteer, who died of apoplexy while on duty here. The shock death of In-soo caused great sorrow to many volunteers and the organisers gave a cash donation to her family. |
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