Delayed Restoration Delays Events... "Never Seen a Venue Like This"

[Anchor]

While pleasant news continues to come from the Asian Games day after day, shoddy tournament operations remain a persistent issue. The rowing events have not even been able to start and the competition schedule has been shortened because authorities have yet to restore the venue from a flood that occurred two weeks ago.

Reporter Yu Byeongmin met with our athletes.

[Reporter]

Two weeks ago, record-breaking downpours wreaked havoc in Nagoya, and the damage from that time still remains at the rowing venue.

The floating lanes were completely damaged, and with restoration still incomplete, the first races originally scheduled for the day before yesterday (September 20) were repeatedly postponed and pushed back until tomorrow.

[Kang Woo-gyu / National Rowing Team Athlete: I have been rowing for about 18 to 19 years, and this is the first time I have ever experienced a venue like this.]

Proper training is also impossible.

Athletes are training in an empty river without lanes.

Normally, they should be training at a venue equipped with lanes, but the venue lanes are only just being installed.

To make matters worse, strong winds suspended venue restoration work, and even practice became too dangerous, forcing athletes to switch to indoor training.

[Hong Kong Rowing Athlete: Look at that. I think it is because of the water condition.]

[Hong Kong Rowing Athlete: The wind is too strong.]

[Hong Kong Rowing Athlete: The organizing committee says a typhoon is coming back.]

On top of this, shuttle buses running between the athletes' village and the venue are dispatched at one-hour intervals, turning arrivals into chaos and packing the inside of the buses like sardines.

[Kang Woo-gyu / National Rowing Team Athlete: It is complete chaos, it feels like a noisy marketplace. If you miss the bus, you have to wait another hour. (I have seen people) unconditionally trying to board first no matter what.]

Veteran Kim Dong-yong, who served as a flag bearer at the opening ceremony, wanted to finish his fifth Asian Games on a high note by competing in two events. However, with the schedule reduced from the original five days down to two, he had to forfeit one event.

[Kim Dong-yong / National Rowing Team Athlete: With the preliminaries and finals all crammed into the last two days, it is a bit disappointing, but I am still trying to focus on the quadruple sculls to achieve good results.]

[Go Team Korea Rowing!]

Though they have only two days, our athletes are determined to pull their Taegeuk oars powerfully and race toward gold.

(Video by: Kim Se-kyung | Video Editing by: Yoon Tae-ho | Design by: Lee Ga-jin)

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