INCHEON, South Korea – Lights flickered from the stands, fireworks blazed to the skies and the children of the host city sang songs of praise and farewell as they regaled athletes and officials from 45 countries in a send-off party closing the 17th Asian Games last night at the Incheon National Stadium.
The Philippines, with its token participation from a handful of last-day entries in karate, boxing and taekwondo, joined the celebration where athletes, who clashed in various battlefronts for 439 gold medals, joined hands in a show of unity and friendship.
They exchanged uniforms, signed autographs and posed for selfies as they partied into the night in a final get together ending another episode of the quadrennial Asian Games.
Korean soprano Im Sjnbae, world-renowned vocalist who is the world’s finest in baroque music, sang the national anthem of Korea. Performers from Indonesia then welcomed athletes to Palembang which hosts the 2018 Games with the message “Indonesia WOW (World of Wonder) as the cauldron that stayed lit for 16 days died into the night.
It was a coming out party for host Korea, a gracious host to 10,000 athletes and officials and 8,000 media men from the Middle East, East Asia, Central Asia and Southeast Asia while beating its visitors in many ways it could to finish with a second best 79-71-84 gold-silver-bronze medals.
Korea displaced perennial rival Japan which placed third this time with 47-76-77.
China made another commanding performance with its 17 gold medals in swimming, seven in diving, six in wushu and at least 30 percent of all the gold medals in 33 other sports disciplines, leaving the rest of Asia in a battle for the remaining medals.
The host country capped its haul of 78-71-84 by winning the men’s football gold with a 1-0 win over North Korea after a scoreless draw in overtime. Its greatest triumph also came in basketball where it took a well-deserving 79-77 win over Iran to regain the gold medal since winning it in 2002 in Busan. It was runner-up in 1994 and 1998 and in 2006 and 2010.
Thailand emerged as one of the top 6 performers of Asia with gold medals in boxing, men’s singles in bowling, women’s golf, women’s two-person dinghy in rowing, four events in sepak takraw, women’s doubles in tennis and the -49 kg in women’s taekwondo.