Doha promises class opening
(AP)Updated: 2006-12-01 08:33 DOHA, Qatar - The man behind Friday's Asian Games opening ceremonies says the production will rival those of any Olympics and he should know.
Doha 2006 artistic director David Atkins was also the was the artistic director on the Sydney Olympic Games opening ceremonies in 2000.
 Illuminated boats are hung during the rehearsal of the 15th Asian Games opening ceremony in Doha November 29, 2006. The opening ceremony will be held on December 1, 2006. [Reuters] |
"This ceremony, in all seriousness, is far more ambitious and greater in scale and scope than the Sydney ceremony," he said.
The show at Khalifa Stadium will feature a fireworks display that organizers say includes four technologically groundbreaking aspects, never before seen in the world. Those are a strict secret.
"We are doing things in this ceremony that have never been done before," Atkins said. "This is the most multicultural team I have ever assembled, there are performers from more countries than are in the games."
 A man takes a picture outside the Khalifa Stadium a day before the start of the 15th Asian Games in Doha November 30, 2006. [Reuters] |
Hong Kong popstar Jacky Cheung, Indian Bollywood star Sunidhi Chauhan, Lebanese artist Magida El Roumi and Spanish tenor Jose Carreras will be among the performers at the opening ceremony.
More than 8,000 artists from the Middle East, Asia and around the world have contributed their creative skills to the project, organizers said.
The collection of costumes have been sourced from Qatar, Australia, China, Thailand, Eqypt, the United States, Syria, Britain, Vietnam, Japan, Hong Kong, India, Bali and South Korea.
And there'll be plenty of glitter. Organizers say the costumes contain more than 100 kilometers of fabric and more than a million gold sequins.
STICKY SITUATION: Macau's chances in the Asian Games men's table tennis competition came unstuck Thursday when officials disqualified two players for using an illegal glue on their paddles.
The entire Macau team was originally disqualified from the games after tests on Leong Kin Wa and Cheong Chi Yung's paddles revealed their glue was illegal.
But an event jury later ruled that Leong was disqualified from competing further at the games, while Cheong was only ruled out of the men's team event.
"The level of aromatic solvent was 300 parts per million," said Park Do-cheon, a technical delegate from South Korea. "Those were very dangerous, high levels."
The team was allowed to replace Leong in the mixed and men's doubles teams with Cheong, while Iam Tong Hou will take his place in the mixed doubles.
The jury did not permit Leong's place in the singles competition to be substituted.
The glue is used to fix the rubber facing of the table tennis paddle. Paddles are routinely tested for both high levels of carcinogens and to eliminate competitive advantage, organizers said.
HOPES FOR HOME ADVANTAGE: The Qatari delegation will be hoping history is on its side when it comes to home town advantage at the Asian Games.
The home advantage has boosted the medal tally for every Asian Games host nation since the event's inception in 1951, most particularly in the number of gold medals won.
South Korea, which staged the 1996 and 2002 Games, has made the most of its home advantage, winning an average of 158.18 more medals while the host.
China set a games record with 183 gold medals and 342 overall when it hosted the 1990 Beijing Games.
The Qatari delegation is confident of doing better than its haul of 17 medals at Busan in 2002, which included four gold.
QATARI HOSPITALITY: With one eye on an Olympic bid, the Doha Asian Games organizers are pulling out all the stops to ensure the visiting athletes and media leave Qatar with a positive impression.
The US$500 (euro380) million Athletes' Village has 32 residential buildings with 811 five-bedroom apartments for athletes and 45 for team leaders.
"The government of Qatar signed a contract with the Olympic Council of Asia which specifies what kind of athlete's village to supply," Ahmed Abdulla Al Khulaifi, organizing committee deputy director general, said Thursday.
"Actually we shouldn't exceed 10,000 (beds), but we provided 11,535, so we are providing for and exceeding that contract."
The complex includes a swimming pool, cinema and prayer facilities for various religions, as well as multicultural dining and entertainment for the wide mix of cultures that make up the games delegations.
The village's main dining hall is open 24 hours serving Arabic, European, subcontinental and east Asian cuisines.
Two of the media accommodation buildings experienced a power failure on Tuesday after a nearby bank construction site cut a shared power cable, prompting a swift response.
"As a result of the power outage, construction at the bank site has been suspended for the next sixteen days," Al Khulaifi said.
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