Incheon: Sale of tickets for Saturday’s closing ceremony is turning out to be a huge concern for organisers of the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.

According to the Incheon Asian Games Organising Committee (IAGOC), less than 21,000 tickets have been sold for the nearly three-hour closing ceremony to be held at the Incheon Asiad Main Stadium. The ticket sale represents just over one-third of the stadium capacity, meaning organisers have just two days to find the means to bring in the crowds.

Most Koreans are not convinced that the closing ceremony will be an improvement of the low-budget opening ceremony held on September 19, and as such do not want to buy tickets for the closing ceremony.

Lee Il-hee, Deputy Secretary-General, IAGOC, has been one of those on the think-tank to find a solution to wrangle out of the situation. Word has it that the organisers may take a cue from the opening ceremony and give away free tickets for the closing as well. Some 20,000 tickets were distributed free among Incheon residents to ensure a capacity stadium.

The closing ceremony is expected to include performances by the National Dance Company of Korea and the National Gugak Centre, a countdown using filmed shots of shirt numbers of athletes, a taekwondo performance and a concert by popular boy band ‘Big Bang’ to conclude the night on a party note.

MVP out of bounds

The voting to decide on the Samsung MVP commenced on Wednesday with media personnel covering the 2014 Asian Games being requested to go and cast their votes at the specially set-up counter at the Main Press Centre (MPC).

The few early ones who turned up on Wednesday were quick to cast their ballot to decide on the stand-out athlete of these Games. However, by 9.30 am the system had crashed and a ‘Break Time’ notice was quickly put up as IT personnel scrambled to rectify the fault. After nearly three hours the system was up and running, but only for some time before it started giving problems again! It was smooth running later during the day.

Japan’s swimming star Hagino Kosuke and Malaysia’s women’s world number one squash player Nicol David are among the front-runners for the award. The other six in the list are Nam Hyun-hee (Fencing, South Korea), Yao Jinna (Gymnastics, China), Peachan Suriyan (Sepaktakraw, Thailand), Cao Yifei (Shooting, China), Kim Jae-bum (Judo, South Korea) and Kim Un-guk (Weightlifting, North Korea).

Even though media covering the Games will vote for the MVP, the final decision is left up to the MVP Award Steering Committee!

The Famous Five?

Malaysia has vowed to contest the drug ban on its wushu gold medallist Tai Cheau Xeun. Tai was the third athlete to have tested positive during the Incheon Asian Games. The OCA revealed that Tai had failed her drug test after winning the women’s nanquan and nandao all-around event on September 20.

Tajik footballer Khurshed Beknazarov and Cambodian soft tennis player Yi Sophany were the earlier two athletes failing drug tests and Iraqi weightlifter Mohammad Al Aifuri became the fourth athlete to fail a test after testing positive for etiocholanolone and androsterone. This was the second drug failure in six years for the Iraqi athlete.

On Wednesday, Syria’s Nour Aldin Al Kurdi became the fifth athlete to test positive. The Syrian karateka’s urine sample collected last week was found to contain the prohibited substance Clenbuterol. The athlete has been disqualified and his accreditation has been cancelled.