On the Scene: Bumpy Road to Closing Ceremony for Asian Beach Games

Athletes from India at the closing ceremony for the Asian Beach Games Oct. 26 in Bali. (Getty)A Bumpy Debut for Games on the Beach

The Asian Beach Games can potentially become a popular biennial event, thanks to the youth appeal of its sports lineup, but numerous organizational problems hampered the first installment in Bali. The games ended Oct. 26 after nine days of competition among the 45 members of the Olympic Council of Asia.

It is fair to downplay some of the issues particularly those relating to venue operations - based on the debutant status of the Games.

But in the lead-up to the next ABG in Oman, the Olympic Council of Asia will have to address glitches in delivery of fundamental services, including accreditation, IT and communications.

Games organizer BABGOC does deserve congratulations for its attempt to organize the Games under severe financial strain, with the Indonesian Government delivering $5 million in funding only just before the event began.

During an address to the OCA general assembly last week, IOC president Jacques Rogge has predicted the ABG will become increasingly popular, describing them as a brilliant, creative, innovative idea and noting their environmentally-friendliness.

While there has been a short-circuit in many areas of the familiar Olympic Games template for the delivery of services and sport competitions, Bali provided excellent hospitality for visiting Games guests.

Noteworthy were the arrival and departure services provided at Denpasar Airport which minimized delays and provided smooth passage for officials and athletes involved in the Games.

Games Highlights: Volleyball, Football, Surfing and Basketball

Highlights of the Games included the beach volleyball, beach football, surfing and beach basketball events, each of which had an excellent atmosphere and spectator enthusiasm.

The final day of surfing was particularly entertaining, with the Indonesians claiming the gold medal in the team challenge event. MC Tai Graham kept crowds entertained and informed during surfing events. (ATR)

It is the first appearance by surfing on an Olympic sport calendar and featured a high standard of competition with fast and powerful maneuvers, aerials and floaters entertaining the healthy-sized crowds.

It is a big achievement for surfing to appear here, with the Philippines only recently forming their national association and affiliating to their National Olympic Committee and The Maldives and Vietnam surfers being represented in such a major event for the first time, an International Surfing Association statement says.

A stand-out feature of the surfing competition was the MC, Australian Tai Graham, who provided live commentary of the event and a clear explanation of the rules on how competitors scored and claimed points for their rides.

The former Gold Coast lifesaver and semi-professional surfer was the x-factor at the public venue in Kuta, a part of Bali that is sadly renowned as the site of the Bali bombings in 2002 and 2005 that claimed a total of 224 lives.

In a memorable finale for surfing, Graham could be heard urging a surfer from last-placed Maldives to raise his hands to claim the points for his wave and reminding him run up the beach to join his team mates with 50 seconds to go, to register his effort.

Fans and the other competitors joined Graham in urging the athlete to the finish line, letting out a loud cheer when he finally did.

Over at the beach football event, Oman mesmerized opponents Korea in the semi-final. The score was locked at 5-5 at the two-thirds mark, with Oman running out 9-6 winners in the third and last period. Omani beach football players celebrating their victory over the UAE. (ATR)

Omani fans chanted, cheered, sang and added Brazilian-style percussion to lift their team, eventually joining them on the pitch for post-game celebrations.

The lively fans have now been given more cause for celebration, with Oman winning the final against the UAE 3-1, on the final day of the Games.

Beach volleyball provided its usual thrills and spills in an upbeat environment, underpinned by its own DJ at the venue.

Thailand claimed the gold medal in the women's final, while Indonesia won gold in the men's competition.

One of the better decisions by BABGOC was to locate the beach volleyball venue alongside the MPC and the Grand Bali Beach hotel, where most of the 500-strong, predominately Asian media contingent are staying.

Bob Elphinston, president of basketball’s world governing body FIBA, says officials from his federation oversaw the Beach Basketball event at the Games, ensuring it ran smoothly.

FIBA is very pleased with the event here. It's been a great success from our point of view, he tells Around the Rings.

It's been another opportunity for FIBA to trial the format of half-court what we call three on three basketball, known as FIBA 33. This is the format we'll use for the youth OlympicGames in Singapore in 2010.

We are gradually modifying the rules and looking to see what really works well and what doesn't work.

He says the same age group for the Youth Olympic Games under-17 was applied to the ABG competition.

Problems Getting the Message Out

Communications and ticket sales are probably the two areas where the BABGOC effort was less than satisfactory.

Information for the media has been difficult to come by, with United States Olympic Committee media and public relations unit head Lisa Ramsperger and a member of her team at USOC, Jamie Blanchard, drafted in at the eleventh hour. Lisa Ramsperger and Jamie Blanchard were recruited to handle the media at the Beach Games. (ATR)

Lisa Ramsperger, of my staff, has been in Bali for the last three weeks assisting with media operations and services, including the setup and operation of the Main Media Center, Darryl Seibel, chief communications officer for USOC, tells Around the Rings.

We were happy to lend our support and assistance. Lisa has had a terrific time, worked hard and made a lot of new friends.

Ramsperger and Blanchard did what they could but a devastating technology failure, which rendered results and other Games information inaccessible for at least two days, made their salvage effort almost impossible.

Thousands of banners throughout Bali, heralding the Games, provided the official ABG website as the only point of contact for information.

Among the mix of different banners on public display were those that provided the headline facts of the Games: 45 countries competing and 19 sport disciplines. For the record, Around the Rings can only count 17 sports on show at the ABG.

Meanwhile, major news agencies and media outlets have largely ignored the ABG, while an estimated 500 Asian print and broadcast media attended.

In an article titled Big media miss Games, so what?, the Jakarta Post reports that Asian outlets have provided substantial coverage of the event.

The busy journalists jump from one venue to another as they cover their national teams hunt for medals. But some reporters are working harder than others because their employers opted to send smaller teams, the newspaper says.

It cites the example of Jean Malanum, the sport editor of the the Manila Times, who is operating alone in Bali, covering the Games for her newspaper and about 30 other newspapers and news agencies in the Philippines.

Thailand which has the second largest team at the games behind hosts Indonesia has one of the largest visiting media contingents for the Games.

About 20 journalists and photographers from the print and electronic media in Thailand are in Bali to cover their 201 athletes competing in 16 sports.

Jet Ski Official Remains Missing

A senior jet ski official at the Asian Beach Games remains missing after parting with his three companions during a leisure trip in Bali.

Race director for the International Jet Sports Boating Association, Briton Jeremy Hoyland, went missing on Friday during a trip to Nusa Lembongan, some 20 kilometers south of Bali, along with four of his friends. Hoyland is also race director for the jet ski event at the ABG.

Bali Police chief Inspector General T. Asikin Husein says the search effort began Friday evening.

The jet skiers went out to snorkel in the morning, but they didn't officially report to the security officers, Husein told reporters during an inspection of jet ski venue in Nusa Dua. British official Jeremy Hoyland (l) in Bali before hisdisappearanceon a jet ski excursion last week at the games. (ATR)

They told the competition manager that they would loiter around the seashore. Actually they went to Nusa Lembongan to snorkel.

On their way back, a member of the group said he was tired so Jeremy, who is an international jet ski master, offered to escort the group from behind. He didn't arrive at the base camp, however, when the others did.

Most of the boats and helicopters allocated to escort the race were instead deployed for the search effort forcing a change in shape of the competition fairway.

The previous fairway stretched about 67 kilometers from Benoa Beach to Nusa Lembongan Islet.

Muscat to Reduce Number of Sports at Games

The next host of the Asian Beach Games: Muscat, Oman, has decided to trim the number of sports for the event.

MABGOC director, Habib A. Macki says the sports roster will be reduced from 17 in Bali to 11 in Muscat in 2010.

We are looking at different things. Here in Bali, there are many hotels and you can accommodate many athletes, he says.

We don't want to build that many hotels because there will be not much use. Therefore, we will concentrate on only 11 sports and a certain number of athletes.

But Muscat expects it will be able to host a greater number of athletes in its athletes village which, Macki says will have a capacity of 3,000.

Written by Anthony Stavrinos.

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