Incheon, Korea, October 5, 2014:
The President of the Olympic Council of Asia, HH Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah, held his closing press conference for the 17th Asian Games at the Main Press Centre in Songdo on Saturday, Oct 4 2014.
Sheikh Ahmad hailed the Incheon Asian Games as an all-round success due to the technical, logistical and social aspects, highlighting the 14 world records, over 28 Asian records and 87 Asian Games records during the 16 days of competition.
“All this shows the development of sport in this continent,” he told the media.
“But it is not only the sport that makes these Games a success; it is the accommodation, the transport, the Olympic Village and the IT as well as the technical side.”
With the slogan of “Diversity Shines Here”, the 17th Asian Games have been a big success in bringing together around 9,700 athletes from 45 National Olympic Committees to contest the 439 gold medals in 36 sports.
Sheikh Ahmad said two particular events stood out – the men’s hockey final between historical rivals India and Pakistan and the men’s football final between host country Korea and DPR Korea.
The OCA President noted that the Pakistani supporters, despite their team being defeated in a shootout, remained to cheer their players at the medal ceremony – one of the “beautiful” moments of the Games, he said.
The football final attracted 47,000 spectators as Korea scored the only goal of the game in the last minute of extra time to beat their rivals from the North, yet the game finished in a very friendly atmosphere.
“These two incidents showed the solidarity and the success of Asia,” he said. “This is what we can deliver around the world and what makes us feel proud of the Asian Games.
“The Asian Games is not only a landmark but also shows our solidarity and unity as well as increasing the technical side of our athletes.”
On the subject of doping, Sheikh Ahmad reported that there had been only six positive cases to date, the majority of them (four) related to medicinal matters and nutritional supplements rather than performance-enhancing drugs.
The OCA President said the Asian Games resembled the Olympic Games in many aspects of the operations side, especially with the presence of the World Anti-Doping Agency and Court of Arbitration for Sport, plus the competition venues, while the Olympic Village and Media Centre were close to Olympic Games standards.
“It was an excellent Games,” he added. “The whole picture is positive, positive, positive and successful.”
On the distribution of medals, Sheikh Ahmad highlighted the fact that 37 of the 45 National Olympic Committees, 82 per cent, had won a medal, including 28 NOCs with a gold medal. He attributed some of this success to the seven-year, OCA-Incheon Metropolitan City Vision 2014 programme to assist smaller NOCs in closing the gap on the super powers.
Addressing some of the problems of the Asian Games, Sheikh Ahmad said he had already held talks with basketball’s world governing body FIBA over the wearing of the hijab and said the door had been opened to solving the problem. Boxing, he added, had a history of controversy, and urged competitors to respect their rivals as well as to follow the proper channels in a dispute.
Sheikh Ahmad thanked the Korean President, Park Geun-hye, the organising committee, the Incheon mayor and city government, the central government , Korean National Olympic Committee, volunteers, police and security for all their efforts in contributing to a successful Asian Games.
