Incheon Games not a 'failure', says Asiad official

Incheon: The Incheon Asian Games were not a "failure" and organisers did their best on a limited budget, a spokesman for the event said on Friday (Oct 3) following a number of complaints.

Poisonous lunchboxes, empty seats and transport problems caused organisers headaches but press relations chief Park Dal-hwa said there were no major incidents. "We didn't have any big accidents or big casualties and I don't think the quality of these Games was very low," Park said, ahead of the 15-day event's closure on Saturday.

"We didn't have a huge deficit arising from these Games. There were some problems arising from these Games but I wouldn't say the Incheon Asian Games was a failure. Personally I don't think that it was a failure as an international sporting event."

The 45-nation Games cost about US$2 billion to organise. The organisers have for months vaunted their low cost blueprint for the huge event involving 9,500 athletes. But among incidents that drew attention, dozens of lunchboxes were thrown out after the detection of salmonella. There were also complaints about transport and even journalists sat in a road to block a bus in frustration.

South Korea's wealthy archery association upgraded the archery venue and took over the catering "to provide a better experience for archery-lovers". Poor attendance was also a problem at the 36-sport event, with Incheon Main Stadium largely empty throughout the athletics competition.

But Park reaffirmed the limited Incheon budget compared to the high-expense 2010 Asiad in Guangzhou, China and other extravaganzas like the Olympics. "We had some systematic problems at the beginning and our response was rather belated, so I believe that reporters had some inconveniences and issues and I would like to give my personal apology for that," said Park.

"I cannot give an exact figure about our budget but when you have a limited budget it's normal for us to use some temporary facilities and some inconveniences are inevitable," he added. "So I think comparing these Games with other Games that had more budget is not realistic."