Indonesia welcomes Asia with explosive opening ceremony
JAKARTA: A spectacular pyrotechnic show, including a simulated volcanic eruption, lit up the Jakarta skyline on Saturday night as Indonesia rolled out the red carpet for the continent’s elite athletes in the opening ceremony for the 18th Asian Games.
Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo made an unorthodox and dramatic entrance to the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, riding a motorbike onto the stage before officially opening Indonesia’s second hosting of the Asiad.
“We are proud, we are honoured by the arrival of the special guests from 45 countries,” Widodo told a crowd of 50,000 packed into the same arena where the 1962 Games were opened. “During the 18th Asian Games we, the nations of Asia, want to show that we are one in brotherhood.”
North, South Korea athletes march together
The North and South Korean athletes illustrated that sentiment at a localised level by marching together under a common flag featuring a map of the divided peninsula.
South Korean women’s basketball player Lim Yung-hui and North Korean footballer Ju Kyong-chol jointly held the Korean Unification flag aloft as they led the Koreas’ athletes wearing pristine white and blue uniforms -- numbering about 1,000 -- out to an ovation from the packed crowd.
It is the second such symbolic gesture this year by the two Koreas, who also walked together at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics opening ceremony -- an event that heralded an unprecedented warming of ties.
The North and South, still technically at war, are joining forces in women’s basketball, canoeing and rowing during the 40-sport, two-week regional Olympics in the Indonesian capital and Palembang, a port city on Sumatra island.
South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon and North Korean Deputy Prime Minister Ri Ryong-nam, watching from the VIP seats, rose together holding hands and beaming as the Korean athletes marched.
There was a huge cheer for the Palestine contingent and Kuwait’s team were also able to march after a ban from the Olympic movement, imposed nearly three years ago for government interference in sport, was provisionally lifted on Thursday.
Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah hailed his homeland’s return.