The Hindu : 170 Asian athletes confirm participation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 22, 2003

Sport

Sport - Asian Games

170 Asian athletes confirm participation

By V.V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD OCT. 21. South African swimmer Ingrid Haiden, winner of four gold medals in the recent all-African Games in Abhuja, heads the list of the 314-member strong contingent that arrived here for the inaugural edition of the Afro-Asian Games.

The other gold medallists from the African Games include Omar El Ghazaly of Egypt (discus), boxers Sadiq Ahmed (60 kg) and Obenga Olakum (91 kg and above) of Nigeria and Bouziane Malik (54 kg) of Algeria.

Gen. Lassana Palenfo, senior IOC member from Ivory Coast who is also the chef-de-mission of the African contingent, said that the best available African athletes were here. He pointed out that the African squad included all the medal winners in most of the disciplines. The African official reminded that they had done their best to support the Games. He hoped that like the political bond between the two continents which began way back in 1955, the sporting ties too would blossom in a big scale through these Games.

Mr. Palenfo also expressed optimism that Africa would host the next Games which will be decided in the Afro-Asian Games Council meeting to be held here during the mega event.

Mr. Emanuel Edouyene, secretary of the African Boxing Federation, revealed that the contingent included 40 medallists from the Abhuja Games. "The boxers here for the Games are the top four from our Continent," he asserted.

Meanwhile, Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, president of the Indian Olympic Association, informed that the second batch of African athletes would arrive by another chartered flight tomorrow afternoon. The IOA chief virtually appealed to the media not to ignore the gold medallists of the Busan Asian Games and the African Games who were coming here and not just highlight the absence of big teams, particularly in football.

More than 170 Asian athletes had confirmed their participation and 80 of them were medallists either in the Busan Asian Games or in the Asian athletic championship in Manila. The list of Asian athletes who have confirmed their participation included India's long jumper Anju George (World championship bronze medallist), 200 m sprinter Shingo Suetsugu of Japan (bronze medallist in World championship). Mr. Kalmadi also said that K.M. Beenamol who has recovered from an injury, was likely to be included in the Indian squad.

The list of other Asian athletes for the Games is as follows:

Women:

Lyubov Perepelova (Uzbekistan - 100 m, 200 m), Feng Yun (China - 100 m hurdles), Nalatya Torshina (Kazhakstan - 400 m hurdles), Li Yanfeng (China - discus), Huang Quiyan (triple jump), Lie Meiju (China - shotput), Saraswati Saha (India - long jump), Bobby Aloysius (India - high jump), Madhuri Saxena (India - 800 m & 1500 m), Sunita Rani (India - 800 m & 1500 m), Neelam J. Singh (India - discus).

Men: Wang Zhouzhou (China - high jump), Grigoriy Yegorov (Kazhakstan - pole vault), Zhou Can (China - long jump), Anil Kumar (India - discus), Bahadur Singh (India - shotput), Shakti Singh (India - shotput), Sugath Tilakaratne (Sri Lanka - 400 m), Li Rongixang (China - javelin) and Sergey Voynov (Uzbekistan - javelin).

The South African men's hockey team which won the gold in the Abhuja Games had also arrived along with Kenya and Egypt. The teams which arrived for the Games today included Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Burkina Faso in football and the South Korean women's and men's hockey teams.

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