Latifa leads UAE contingent at Asiad
A great honour for me, says young UAE flagbearer Latifa
One of the oldest sporting venues in Asia — the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium — burst into life as the curtains rose on the 18th Asian Games yesterday.
The $55 million opening ceremony provided the perfect setting for what is expected to be grand 15 days of nonstop entertaining sporting action.
Hearts will beat to the rhythm of national anthems, new records will be set and everlasting bonds of friendship and camaraderie formed.
Memories — both happy and sad — will stay with the athletes forever.
The Indonesian President Joko Widodo, 57, popularly known as ‘Jokowi’ set the tone with a video showing him riding a bike through the bylanes of Jakarta and entering the stadium doing stunts. Though the act was hilarious and left the spectators in splits, it triggered enough excitement for the rest of the evening.
The ceremony stage was a towering mountain of 120-metre length, 30-metre width and 26-metre height featuring waterfall, various Indonesian plants and flowers. A total of 4,000 dancers performed to the beat of an orchestra comprising of hundred musicians.
The concert displayed the diversity of Indonesian culture, natural resources, ethnic diversity of a country of about 17,508 islands, as reflected in the tournament’s slogan ‘Energy of Asia’.
Carrying the UAE flag into the arena was 18-year-old Emirati fencer Latifa Al Hosani. A beaming Latifa, who will be leading UAE’s challenge in the fencing foil individual and team, told Gulf News earlier: “It’s a great honour for me to carry our national flag and I can’t ask for more. I would like to thank everyone for making it possible for me. Hopefully, it will inspire everyone to win more glory here at the Games. We all will be giving our best.”
UAE’s Chef de mission Ahmad Al Tayeb was of the view that the move to give Latifa the honour of carrying the UAE flag was based on the role that women is playing in the UAE society.
“Women are now in all fields — from business to politics and are playing a lead role in shaping up our nation. They need to be recognised for their effort and also inspired. With Latifa carrying the flag many girls out there will be inspired to take up sports and that’s what we are looking at. The UAE government want to give all the possible support to women in UAE to achieve their goals,” said Al Tayeb, who also marched into the stadium with athletes from the Fencing team.
“With events being split between Jakarta and Palembang, all the athletes couldn’t make it to the opening ceremony and we could only get the fencing team. Our rowing and shooting teams have landed in Palembang. The weightlifting and archery teams will be joining the fencing team here soon,” revealed Al Tayeb.
Grand show
The UAE delegation attending the ceremony also included Humaid Al Qattami, VP of the UAE NOC and Head of the UAE delegation, Abdul Malik Jani, VP of the UAE Sports Delegation, Abdul Mohsen Al Dosari, Secretary-General of the General Sports Authority, Brigadier Talal Al Shinqeeti, Secretary-General of the NOC and Mohammad Bin Darwish, Executive Director of the NOC.
Indonesia had put on a grand show when they first hosted the event in 1962, finishing second to Japan with 21 gold medal medals, but since then the world’s thirdlargest democracy after India and the US with a population of about 260 million has not been able to build on that success.
This time, they seemed to be hungrier than ever to get their record back on track and that was evident when more than 900 athletes marched into the Games cauldron amidst the deafening roar of their fans. It’s the largest number ever from a single country.
Stealing the show was Indonesian dangdut singer Via Vallen, who showcased the country’s highly popular musical genre of dangdut — a mixture of Mallay, Indian and Arabia fusion that made the audience to dance along. The crowd were also left captivated by Indonesian singer Anggun Cipta Sasmi along with pop music acts such as Tulus and Raisa as well as the trio of Gamaliel, Audrey and Cantika (GAC).
It’s lucky for Sun Yang that he has born with such enormous shoulders. His 6-foot-7 frame not only helps him churn through the water, but it also helps him carry a heavy burden that only a handful of elite athletes in the world experience.
As China’s greatest swimmer, the expectation on Sun to win is intense. After all, he’s racing for a country of more than a billion people.
With three Olympic gold medals and nine world titles already, he’s already achieved great heights in his sport and earned the financial security that comes from global sporting success.
He might easily have slipped into retirement, but either he won’t or can’t.
Sun’s immediate focus is the 18th Asian Games in Indonesia, where swimming competition begins Sunday. It doesn’t have the same kudos as the Olympics or the world championships but for Sun, it’s just as important.
As it is for Joseph Schooling, who is competing amid huge expectations from his nation — albeit a smaller one than Sun’s.
The Singapore swimmer announced his arrival on the world stage when he won the 100-meter butterfly gold medal at the 2014 Asian Games, then two years later he beat Michael Phelps for the Olympic title.
Schooling has entered six events in Jakarta, including the 50 and 100-metre butterfly, 50 freestyle, and three relays.
Like Sun in China, Schooling has inspired a whole new generation of wannabe Olympians.
He also has been rewarded for it financially after signing a string of endorsement deals when he turned pro following his last appearance for the University of Texas in the NCAA competition, but is driven by loftier goals to keep on swimming.
Games is huge
“The Asian Games is huge. I’d say it’s up there with the world championships, and a bit under the Olympics,” Schooling said. “It’s always a stage where I’m comfortable competing on.
“Rio obviously changed my life but I like to live in the present even though you can’t forget all the steps you’ve taken to get to where you are, and I want to swim until 2024.”
While Sun and Schooling are the headline acts in the Asian Games pool, there’s plenty of talent in a stacked China roster and a Japan squad led by Rio Olympic 400-metre medley champion Kosuke Hagino.
Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Balandin was almost unheard of when he won the 200-metre breaststroke at the last Asian Games in 2014, but has a high profile now after winning the gold in Rio.
Sun treats the Asian Games as seriously any other major international competition, and so has set himself a gruelling schedule.