A happy blend of professionalism supported by an admirable attempt to attain perfection gives the ambience of the 17th Asian Games as you touch down at the spick and span airport.
The formalities associated with accreditation are completed in a jiffy leading the weary traveller into an area of comfort.
For a nation which is on the threshold of hosting its third Asian Games — the first in 1986 — and being the venue for one of the best Olympic Games noted for its unprecedented number of countries contesting under the IOC flag in 1988, the nitty-gritty of grasping of the complexities of conducting a mega event is quite transparent in every area.
Competitive hockey gets a little more focus in this soccer obsessed country thanks largely to the consistently good performances of the national teams, men and women, since 1986.
It was at the Seoul Asian Games, a rehearsal for the Olympics that Korea announced its arrival as a major force in the game.
The gold medal triumph signalled a new era. Today, the Koreans are reckoned as one of the most formidable opponents on the contemporary scene.
What captured the imagination of the hockey fraternity, accustomed to the aesthetics associated with India and Pakistan was the athleticism and adeptness, especially in the area of penalty corners improvised by the Koreans.
Penalty-corner conversionFew countries in Asia and only a handful in the world today, have perfected the art of converting penalty corners with a measure of consistency as the Koreans.
In the men’s competition, Korea has won the gold medal four times (1986, 1994, 2002 and 2006) in 11 appearances with a silver medal (1998) and a bronze in 1958, the year when hockey was introduced in the Asian Games.
The statistics only confirm that the men had cornered the gold on both the occasions when Korea hosted the Asian Games.
They are, understandably, gearing for it this time before the home audience.
Equally interesting is the report card of the women, the winner of the gold four times in eight appearances with three silver medals. Only in 2006 did the women miss the podium finish. The aim now is to get a double.
Bristling with lifeThe Seonhak Hockey Stadium, which is among the venues for conducting handball and boxing, was bristling with life on Thursday with the technical officials testing equipment and clock, which needs to be recalibrated to suit to the demands of the four-quarter format, under the guidance and supervision of Brian Fernandez, the Tournament Director.
Interestingly, the administration of the Stadium is under the former Olympian Jeong Sang Hyun, who played here in 1988.
The teams are getting a feel of the blue turf at the venue and of course in the four-quarter format, which seems to have injected an element of excitement to the players as well as the spectators.
Everyone seems to be looking forward to this here.
In a warm-up match on Thursday morning India defeated Japan 2-0 thanks to field goals from S.V. Sunil and Akashdeep Singh.