"What Is This Happening From the First Game..." Incident Leaves South Korean Athletes Flustered

〈Anchor〉

Although the competition officially begins tomorrow (September 19), poor operational management continues to be exposed everywhere. Today, an absurd incident occurred at the hockey national team venue where the North Korean national anthem was played instead of the South Korean national anthem, the Aegukga. Complaints from athletes are erupting, ranging from immigration clearance to meals and accommodation issues.

Reporter Yu Byeongmin has the story from the scene.

〈Reporter〉

Ahead of their first match, our men's hockey players prepare for the national ceremony.

[Playing the national anthem of South Korea.]

Suddenly, however, the North Korean national anthem echoes instead of the Aegukga, leaving the flustered players not knowing what to do.

After the playing of the Bangladeshi national anthem concluded, they waited for the Aegukga, but when it did not play, players from both teams began high-fiving each other, and only then did the Aegukga finally start.

Having experienced such an absurd event, our athletes did not lose their composure and decorated their first match with a victory.

Just like this, with the opening ceremony only a day away, the tournament's operation remains an absolute mess.

Our teqball players, staying in a cramped business hotel, are only provided breakfast at the hotel and must use the stadium cafeteria for lunch, but they are experiencing hardships because the menu is far too inadequate.

[Kim Eun-jun / Teqball National Team: Lunch is just too ridiculously inadequate in terms of nutrients or filling our stomachs.]

Thai athletes grew exhausted while waiting for their competition AD card registration upon arrival, ending up cooking the instant noodles they brought and sleeping on the floor, while Indian athletes arrived at their cruise ship accommodation 10 hours after landing at Nagoya Airport, only to discover that their room had been assigned in duplicate with other athletes.

[Varun Sanyal / Indian Mixed Martial Arts National Team: I saw two athletes standing in my room. Systematically, the organizing committee assigned this room to me, but this room was originally theirs. It is just an absolute shambles.]

While complaints are exploding everywhere, the organizing committee dismissed the athletes' grievances as fake news, claiming the competition is proceeding smoothly.

[Tayyab Ikram / Asian Games Coordination Committee Chairperson: Rooms have been provided to all athletes, and they are staying comfortably. I won't name names, but there is a lot of misinformation on social media.]

With the tournament operations still in disarray, confusion is expected to continue for a while even after tomorrow's opening.

(Photo: Social Media (SNS) / Reported by Park Jin-ho and Yang Hyun-chul, Video Edited by Kim Jin-won, Design by Cho Su-in, Video Source: Social Media (SNS))
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.