Asia’s not so magnificent seven
AFP
THEY’RE the not so magnificent seven, the countries who came to Doha with no expectations and spectacularly lived down to them.
Of the 45 countries who took part in the 15th Asian Games, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Maldives, Oman and the Palestinian territories went home with not as much as a bronze between them.
For Brunei and Palestinian territories, it marks a decline. Four years ago in Busan, they picked up a bronze each.
Palestinian footballers lost all three games they played without scoring.
“There are players in the side who I only saw for the first time when we arrived in Doha,” said coach Hasan Aabed. “They live in Gaza and I can’t get there from where I live. It’s not an excuse but it made our preparations difficult.”
The Maldives also went home without a medal, but they claimed a moral victory after only losing 3-1 to mighty Iran in the football first round.
Nine years ago, they went down to a record 17-0 defeat against the same opponents in a World Cup qualifier.
“It was a great challenge,” said coach Ivanov Stoikov. “We have improved a lot since Iran beat us 17-0.”
Oman are the only Gulf nation to go home without a medal despite bringing a team of 82 on the short trip to Qatar. They failed to make the second round of the football tournament and veteran coach Milan Macala blamed the set-up.
“There are six professional players in this team, they were tired from club league matches and we didn’t get enough time to prepare,” said Macala.
“Sixteen of our national players are out of the country to play club league matches.”
Its best hope in Doha had been with shooter Saleem Al Nasri who finished just outside the top 20 in the double trap at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
But here, he was 23rd.
Furthermore, their hockey team also went home in disgrace when player Hossam Hassan was thrown out after he assaulted Bangladesh’s Mamunur Rahman with his hockey stick. For the continent’s other no-hopers, there were similar tales of woe.
The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, strong in archery, saw both their men’s and women’s team lose in the first round while oil-rich Brunei fared little better with three bowlers finishing in 87th, 93rd and 97th places respectively.
Eddie Johari had the country’s best showing with a quarter-final place in karate. Four years ago, they won their only medal ever — a bronze in karate.
Cambodia put two athletes on the track and lived to regret it as sprinter Lun Chhay was sixth in his heat in 11.42sec while 5000m runner Bunting Hem was 13th, almost two minutes behind the champion James Kurui of Qatar. East Timor, who made their Games debut in Busan in 2002, are still waiting for a medal breakthrough but it won’t come from Alain Soares who finished a huge 46 minutes behind winner, Qatar’s Hassan Shami, in the marathon. Laos would have also suffered a similar feeling had it not been for Phoxay Aphailath who picked up a wushu silver on the penultimate day.
It could have been better had injury not forced the 21-year-old to withdraw from his final against China’s Li Teng.
Of the 45 countries who took part in the 15th Asian Games, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Maldives, Oman and the Palestinian territories went home with not as much as a bronze between them.
For Brunei and Palestinian territories, it marks a decline. Four years ago in Busan, they picked up a bronze each.
Palestinian footballers lost all three games they played without scoring.
“There are players in the side who I only saw for the first time when we arrived in Doha,” said coach Hasan Aabed. “They live in Gaza and I can’t get there from where I live. It’s not an excuse but it made our preparations difficult.”
The Maldives also went home without a medal, but they claimed a moral victory after only losing 3-1 to mighty Iran in the football first round.
Nine years ago, they went down to a record 17-0 defeat against the same opponents in a World Cup qualifier.
“It was a great challenge,” said coach Ivanov Stoikov. “We have improved a lot since Iran beat us 17-0.”
Oman are the only Gulf nation to go home without a medal despite bringing a team of 82 on the short trip to Qatar. They failed to make the second round of the football tournament and veteran coach Milan Macala blamed the set-up.
“There are six professional players in this team, they were tired from club league matches and we didn’t get enough time to prepare,” said Macala.
“Sixteen of our national players are out of the country to play club league matches.”
Its best hope in Doha had been with shooter Saleem Al Nasri who finished just outside the top 20 in the double trap at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
But here, he was 23rd.
Furthermore, their hockey team also went home in disgrace when player Hossam Hassan was thrown out after he assaulted Bangladesh’s Mamunur Rahman with his hockey stick. For the continent’s other no-hopers, there were similar tales of woe.
The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, strong in archery, saw both their men’s and women’s team lose in the first round while oil-rich Brunei fared little better with three bowlers finishing in 87th, 93rd and 97th places respectively.
Eddie Johari had the country’s best showing with a quarter-final place in karate. Four years ago, they won their only medal ever — a bronze in karate.
Cambodia put two athletes on the track and lived to regret it as sprinter Lun Chhay was sixth in his heat in 11.42sec while 5000m runner Bunting Hem was 13th, almost two minutes behind the champion James Kurui of Qatar. East Timor, who made their Games debut in Busan in 2002, are still waiting for a medal breakthrough but it won’t come from Alain Soares who finished a huge 46 minutes behind winner, Qatar’s Hassan Shami, in the marathon. Laos would have also suffered a similar feeling had it not been for Phoxay Aphailath who picked up a wushu silver on the penultimate day.
It could have been better had injury not forced the 21-year-old to withdraw from his final against China’s Li Teng.
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