Bed shortage bedeviling Asian Games in Qatar

ASIAN GAMES: The shortage of accommodation will be so severe at December's Asian Games in Qatar that the Japanese delegation is considering bringing in air beds to share rooms.

The Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) said Thursday it had filed a protest to the organizers of the December 1-15 Asian Games.

"We are asking the Japanese embassy and local Japanese companies to help find us accommodation," JOC president Tsunekazu Takeda said.

"Some of us must be prepared to sleep in the living rooms of apartments at the athletes' village," he told a meeting of the JOC executive board, which was open to the press.

The Doha Asian Games organizing committee has informed the JOC that they will be able to provide only 693 beds for the 811-strong Japanese delegation including 628 athletes, he said.

The capital of the energy-rich Gulf state is buzzing with massive construction, but it is unlikely to be enough for the Asian Games, the world's biggest multi-sport event after the Summer Olympics, he said.

"I can't imagine that they will be able to fill in the gap of more than 100 beds in time," he said adding that the accommodation problem will also hit hard big delegations from regional sports superpowers China and South Korea.

"Top-rate hotels in Doha have been booked up by the organizing committee. Hotels for foreign workers will not be adequate for our athletes. There are a limited number of hotels for our emergency use," Takeda said.

Japan protested against the improper organization, said Tomiaki Fukuda, deputy chief of the delegation.

"We will have to bring along air beds for athletes, coaches and officials. We can rent blankets and pillows over there," he said. "But, under any circumstances, our athletes must give it their all."

The Gulf Times, an English-language daily in Doha, reported recently that the number of participants from the region's 45 countries and territories had topped 13,500 although the 500 million-dollar athletes' village was built for 10,000.

Fukuda, the head of the Japanese Wrestling Federation, said Japanese wrestlers and judokas were seeking to hire an apartment tower somewhere as their competition dates will not clash.

The number of Japanese athletes to compete in Doha is 30 fewer than those who took part in the 2002 Asian Games in the South Korean port city of Busan.

Japan will aim to regain its traditional place in the regional sporting hierarchy in Qatar. They were dethroned by China at the 1982 New Delhi Asian Games and overtaken by South Korea in 1986.

In Busan, China topped the gold medal tally at 150, followed by South Korea at 96, with Japan a far third at 44.

TOKYO, Thursday, AFP