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| September 27, 2002 | Friday | Rajab 19, 1423 |
Organizers dogged by complaints
BUSAN (South Korea), Sept 26: South Korean shooters Thursday walked out of the Asian Games athletes’ village, complaining about inconveniences related to transportation and meals.
The departure highlighted mounting concerns over organizational problems just three days before the opening of the Games here, the largest ever Asiad with 44 countries taking part.
It also dealt a blow to organizers’ efforts to emulate the 1986 Seoul Asian Games which was widely hailed as a organizational success.
“We have to spend more than four hours including time spent waiting for a shuttle bus to move back and forth between the athletes’ village and the shooting range in Changwon,” coach Kim Kwan-Yong complained.
They have instead booked a hotel in Changwon.
“On top of this, my shooters also have problems with grabbing meals in time. They feel tired of such things,” he told journalists as he and 18 others left the athletes’ village.
The South Korean shooting squad has to move between the athletes village on the eastern tip of this sprawling city of four million population to Changwon City in the west for training.
Athletes also complained that they were not given lunch boxes when they are outside the village for training and they either had to come back to the village for lunch or to find nearby restaurants.
Park Mi-Hyang, an official of the Busan Asian Games Organization Committee (BAGOC), said this complaint had been dealt with and lunch packages were now being provided.
BAGOC earlier said it would not provide meals to any athletes outside the athletes’ restaurant in the village, even though there are 44 Asiad training camps scattered across in Busan and in neighboring cities including Changwon, Ulsan and Yangsan.
Athletes have also complained about inconsistent timetables of shuttle buses plying between the Games venues and athletes villages.
On Monday, South Korean swimmers and gymnasts had to take taxis to return to the village after waiting for a shuttle bus for one hour, Yonhap news agency said.
Lapses and oversights in the organizational coordination and preparations were highlighted Monday when a soccer friendly between South Korea and Kuwait at Gudeok Main Stadium suffered a 20-minute blackout.—AFP
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